Dynamic Variation of Material Composition of Secondary Ores

Only a detailed knowledge about the design and the composition of the end-of-life devices can build the basis for the development of recycling strategies and gauging economic values.With a consumption of about 60-70 % of the worldwide produced material, capacitors are the main application for Tantalum (Ta). Approximately 13 % of the produced Neodymium is used for the production of Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnets from which 34 % is applied in hard disk drives (HDD) in Personal Computers (PC). This paper addresses the varying composition for likewise functional applications and the concentration over time exemplarily for Ta capacitors insix broad electronic product types and for rare earth elements (REE) in NdFeB magnets in hard disk drives from PC and Notebooks.