MAGELLAN was represented at “Rare Earths and Magnets – Expanding the European capacities”, held on 29–30 October 2025 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Organised by EIT RawMaterials in collaboration with the EU-funded PASSENGER project, the event brought together stakeholders from across the rare earth and permanent magnet value chain to discuss how Europe can expand its capacities, strengthen industrial resilience and accelerate circular economy solutions.
The event gathered around 150 participants, with strong representation from industry, research and academia, as well as public authorities, investors, associations and consulting organisations. Discussions focused on key issues for the European rare earth and magnet ecosystem, including diversified and de-risked supply chains, investment in EU strategic projects, circular economy pathways, permanent magnet recyclability and recycled content.
EIT RawMaterials played an important role in creating the platform for this exchange, bringing together industrial, research and policy actors around the urgent need to expand European capacities in rare earths and permanent magnets. This role is directly relevant to MAGELLAN’s clustering, networking and exploitation activities, as the project aims to support the development of a resilient European permanent magnet value chain based on improved material use, recovery and circularity.
MAGELLAN coordinator Orano also contributed to the event through several activities. Orano participated in a SIGN core group meeting organised by EIT RawMaterials at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant, where around 40 participants discussed priorities including a level playing field for European actors, offtake and OEM commitments, and EU flagship projects supported by blended finance. The meeting contributed to the development of an action plan on rare earths and magnets, intended to feed into discussions linked to the European Commission’s ReSourceEU plan.
Orano contributed to the main programme through a presentation by Benoit Richebe, Project Director for Rare Earths / Magnets, on the recycling and manufacturing of high-performance NdFeB permanent magnets. This provided an opportunity to highlight topics closely aligned with MAGELLAN’s work on functional recycling, advanced magnet manufacturing, resource efficiency and the development of resilient European value chains.
MAGELLAN was further presented during a clustering session with related European projects, including REEsilience, GREENE, HARMONY and REEPRODUCE. Alexandre Damiens, Head of Development and Industrial Partnerships at Orano, introduced MAGELLAN’s approach and objectives, including its focus on improving the “Make, Use and Recover” stages of the permanent magnet circular economy. The MAGELLAN presentation highlighted the project’s work on increasing the use of recycled heavy rare earth elements through a short-loop recycling process, using secondary rare earth elements in high-performance magnets, improving EV traction motor design, facilitating magnet recovery, establishing characterisation protocols and promoting standardised magnet labelling.
Through the joint involvement of EIT RawMaterials and Orano, MAGELLAN strengthened its visibility among strategic European stakeholders and contributed to shared discussions on how to enhance the uptake of sustainable rare earth and permanent magnet solutions in Europe. The activity also supported collaboration with complementary EU-funded projects and helped position MAGELLAN within broader European efforts to expand rare earth and magnet capacities.
