ION recovers heavy rare earths from e-waste in the USA

Published 15-JUN-2026 12:44 P.M.

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Our critical minerals recycling Investment Iondrive (ASX:ION) just recovered heavy rare earths out of e-waste in the USA.

ION's recycling tech uses biodegradable, non-toxic "Deep Eutectic Solvents" to dissolve and selectively pull metals out of waste.

Today, ION showed it can apply its tech to commercial E-Waste and recovered:

Dysprosium at 93.5%
Neodymium at 96.5%
Praseodymium at 93.8%

Plus early promising results for other heavy rare earth elements including holmium and gadolinium.

Dysprosium, holmium and gadolinium are “heavy rare earths” - the most supply-constrained, highest-value rare earths…

They are the type material that goes into producing magnets for EV motors, F-35 fighter jets and guided missile systems…

(source)

It's also the type of rare earths that China has an almost ~100% grip on supply globally which is a big part of the reason why the US government has spent the last ~18 months throwing billions of dollars to try and build its own supply chain.

The problem in the US is that the only operating rare earths mine in the country, owned by $14BN MP Materials which produces mostly light rare earths.

So domestic supply of heavy rare earths from mining is challenged and that’s why the US government has explicitly put out funding commitments to encourage recycling/processing innovation.

The US obviously recognises that a big part of solving the heavy rare earths problem is going to be by looking at non-mining solutions too:

(source)

Ion also mentioned this in the December quarterly:

(source)

And then these in the March quarterly:

(source)

That’s where ION’s tech comes into play.

ION has a binding agreement with Colt - signed back in September 2025 - to test its tech on Colt's e-waste.

Colt Recycling is one of the largest and most advanced e-waste recyclers in the US - processing ~40 million lbs (18 million kg) of e-waste every year in the US alone.

Colt is also part of the Elemental Holding Group, which has recycling operations in more than 20 countries across four continents. (Elemental)

The deal is basically centred around ION proving its tech works on Colt's material and then a potential roll out of the tech across Colt’s recycling facilities across the US.

Today’s results confirm its possible AND that it can be done on the "dirty end" of the feedstock spectrum.

Today’s announcement actually said the testing was done on “from commercial US e-waste feedstock”, so real world representative samples. (source)

That last bit is important because ION’s actually already ran economic analysis on how a rollout of its tech would look through 2,000 tonne per year modular plants.

Those numbers were published in November 2025 and showed: (source)

Post-tax NPV of ~US$7M
IRR of 46%
Payback in 2.6 years
CAPEX of just ~US$4.6M
~115 tonnes per year of mixed rare earth oxides over a 10-year life

We think those numbers could look a lot different if today’s recovery rates can be replicated in the 2,000 tonne per annum facilities.

For context - the economics were done assuming heavy rare earth recoveries of just 32.1% (Dy), 25.6% (Ho) and 23.2% (Gd).

Today's single-pass results came in at 93.5% Dy (plus “promising early results for other HRE elements such as holmium and gadolinium”), a ~3x improvement across the Dy…

(source)(source)

So after today, ION has:

A binding agreement with Colt - one of the biggest e-waste processors in the US, with a parent group operating in 20+ countries.
Proof its tech can turn American e-waste into heavy rare earths - the exact part of the supply chain the US is short of and can't currently make.

We think ION is in a good position to be able to expand within the US, especially with all the funding floating around in the US for this type of thing.

We have covered those funding deals in detail in our previous ION notes here:

What’s next for ION?

ION had a new updated presentation out last month - here is the key slide on what’s next:

(check out the full presentation here)

Below are the next bunch of catalysts that we think could re-rate ION’s valuation from where it is today.

But before we dive in, let's be clear - there’s no guarantee ION re-rates in the future, it's a high risk, small cap stock.

OK here’s what could happen that could see a re-rate:

1. US rare earths partnership (possibly the most market topical right now)

ION will now test its tech on e-waste feedstock to see if it can commercially recover rare earths. A recent announcement showed it can recover it from end of life magnets which is a positive signal it could work on things like e-waste.

Today - ION released recovery results showing a vast improvement in dysprosium (now at 93.5%) and “promising early results” for other heavy rare earth elements holmium and gadolinium. (source)

2. Pilot plant build commissioning

We think this will be a big inflection point for ION, because it takes ION’s tech out of the lab and into a pilot plant. ION expects to have the plant commissioned by Q4 2026. Here is a handy slide showing how valuations re-rate when tech goes out of the lab and into pilot plants:

(source)

Again, to be clear, ION is a small cap speculative investment, there’s no guarantee its valuation will rise in the future.

3. ION’s mineral processing tech gets de-risked

Any news across the multiple mineral processing testworks ION is doing right now could trigger a re-rate in ION’s share price - especially if it’s in a material that the market is looking for exposure to (ION is testing cobalt and nickel to begin with and then hopefully many more critical minerals).

4. Application into new markets

ION is aiming to recover copper, gold, silver, osmium and rare earth elements from e-waste (Printed Circuit Boards). Results from these tests could come at arbitrary times. We could see the market re-rate ION if the results are positive.

Again - these are just potential re-rate catalysts - there’s no guarantee that A. the company achieves them, and B. even if it does, the market may not care.