Iondrive Reports 93.5% Dysprosium Recovery From US E-Waste Validation

Iondrive (ASX: ION) says independent test work on commercial US e-waste has materially strengthened the rare-earth recovery case for its IONSolv process, highlighted by 93.5% dysprosium recovery and 96.5% recoveries for both neodymium and praseodymium.

The new dysprosium result sits well above the assumption used in its prior techno-economic analysis, with a TEA refresh now planned through a pre-feasibility study (PFS) once feedstock supply assumptions are firmed up.

The test work was carried out on commercial US e-waste supplied by Colt Recycling LLC, which the company has previously identified as part of its US recycling pathway.

Dysprosium is the heavy rare earth that most clearly outperformed Iondrive’s earlier economic assumptions, with the company’s November 2025 TEA using a 32.5% dysprosium recovery assumption, compared with the newly reported 93.5% result.

Light rare earth recoveries also held up well relative to the earlier study assumptions.

Iondrive reported 96.5% neodymium recovery versus 95.5% assumed in the prior TEA, and 96.5% praseodymium recovery versus 92% previously assumed.

The company also pointed to improved process selectivity, including quantified solvent-extraction iron rejection and no measurable co-extraction of the targeted rare earths, which supports the pathway to a revised TEA and then a PFS.

US Recycling Platform Background

The project in focus is Iondrive’s IONSolv deep eutectic solvent process, which the company is developing as a modular recycling platform for urban mining streams including rare-earth magnets, e-waste, solar materials, and battery feedstocks.

In simple terms, the company is trying to use a selective solvent-based flowsheet to recover valuable metals from complex waste materials rather than from primary ore.

For this announcement, the feedstock came from commercial US e-waste supplied by Colt Recycling LLC, which has already featured in Iondrive’s broader US-facing recycling strategy.

This is also not the first external validation point the company has reported in the US.

In April 2026, Iondrive disclosed third-party test work on magnet recycling feedstock, with 93.8% neodymium and 95.1% praseodymium extraction from a 250kg bulk sample.

At that time, the company said those results exceeded earlier study assumptions and were part of a modular development pathway toward commercial readiness.

Iondrive has described that broader strategy as a phased hub-and-spoke deployment model. Under that concept, smaller modular plants would process targeted feedstock streams and support staged capital deployment, rather than relying on a single large refinery build.

The company has also highlighted multiple intermediate products that could fit into that staged approach.

Numbers and Study Implications

The key reported recoveries from the latest independent validation were 93.5% dysprosium, 96.5% neodymium and 96.5% praseodymium.

The company described these as unaudited leach efficiencies, which is an important distinction because they are not yet presented as fully closed mass-balance results across the complete flowsheet.

Against the TEA comparison base, the filing also referenced 99.9% iron rejection.

Iondrive said this part of the process had progressed from qualitative commentary to quantified solvent-extraction performance, with no measurable co-extraction of the targeted rare earths.

The previous TEA was based on a 2,000 tonnes per annum modular plant. That study outlined US$4.6 million in capex, an NPV of US$7 million at a 10% real discount rate, an IRR of 46% and payback of 2.6 years.

Iondrive said the stronger dysprosium result is expected to improve revised economics once incorporated into a refreshed study at PFS level.

What Needs Proving Next

The next milestone is not a final investment decision or plant build, but a PFS-supported update to the TEA.

Iondrive said that step depends on securing representative feedstock grades and volumes across several higher-grade pathways, rather than relying on a single stream.

Those pathways are sorted ferrous streams, OEM scrap and end-of-life motor stators, with further validation work planned to determine whether the strong rare-earth recoveries can be repeated on those feeds, while in-process pre-treatment is also being assessed to upgrade lower-grade material.

Another key issue is the gap between leach recoveries and full flowsheet performance, with the current results unaudited and not yet confirmed by overall mass balance.

In practice, that means reported recoveries could change once full accounting and scale-up work is completed.

Recovery Gains, but Scale-up Matters

This announcement gives Iondrive a stronger technical datapoint for the heavy rare-earth side of its US recycling strategy, particularly because dysprosium recovery now looks materially better than the assumption used in its prior TEA.

But the commercial significance still depends on what happens next: confirming full flowsheet performance, locking in representative higher-grade feedstock, and translating validation work into a PFS and funded deployment pathway.

What to watch from here is fairly concrete: whether Iondrive can confirm full flowsheet performance rather than just leach efficiency, whether it can secure representative higher-grade feedstock from the pathways it has named, and whether the planned PFS arrives with clearer detail on throughput, product routes, capital needs and partner conversion.

Timing around pilot execution, approvals and funding will also remain relevant as the company moves from testwork into study-level and deployment planning.