The main goal of the SecREEts project is to establish a stable and secure supply of critical rare earth elements based on a sustainable extraction from European apatite sources used in fertiliser production.
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are critical and non-substitutable raw materials with high economic importance for European industry, as they are crucial components for a broad range of advanced products.
Pilot processes will be developed for the innovative extraction, separation and transformation of rare earth elements. SecREEts pilots will focus on the metals Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd) and Dysprosium (Dy) used in permanent magnets, as these are extremely critical for the European economy. These REEs will be supplied to application areas like automotive (electric vehicles), industrial motors (advanced manufacturing) and, potentially, clean energies (wind turbines).
Industrial implementation of the pilots developed in SecREEts will lead to a supply of at least 3000 tonnes annually of REEs to European industries in 2023, with 75 M€ in estimated value. The technology developed in this project will be able to cover approximately 10 percent of the Europe's need for rare earth elements.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant agreement No 776559