A BELFAST company that received a £1.72 million grant from the UK Government to develop a permanent magnet recycling plant has recorded record growth in just under a year.
Ionic Technologies, a spin-out from Queen’s University, said its 2023 expansion plans have already surpassed all expectations in terms of job creation and business growth.
The company, which was acquired in 2022 by Australian multinational Ionic Rare Earths Ltd, has developed a revolutionary new technique to recycle permanent magnets, by reusing the geopolitically sensitive and now strategic rare earth elements and making them available for developing new domestic supply chains.
General manager Thomas Kelly said that the company, which launched with just five staff, has now increased in size to 17 people and will be announcing more appointments soon.
“The decision to use Belfast as a base is already bearing fruit, given the strength of the applicants for a wide range of high-level scientific positions within the company,” he said.
“We have been hugely impressed with the talent pool and the high-quality team we’ve already been able to build.
“We’re also delighted at the development both of our supply chain and customer base.
“The world’s supply of magnet rare earth elements is failing to keep pace with demand, whilst the importance and ubiquity of magnets in everyday life is growing.
“As the demand for these new technology applications grows, the need for secondary sourcing, otherwise known as recycling, becomes ever more pressing.”
Ionic Technologies has developed new techniques to recycle permanent magnets using a revolutionary process for the separation and refining of rare earth elements from mining ore concentrates and waste magnets.
The company plans to employ more staff in 2023, with further expansion planned thereafter.
It is now accelerating the scale up of the technology, completing a new demonstration plant at its facility at the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.
In 2022, Ionic was awarded £1.72m through the UK Government’s Innovate UK Automotive Transformation Fund Scale up Readiness Validation (SuRV) programme / competition.
The grant was aimed at helping the company develop a demonstration scale magnet recycling plant, a significant step towards securing the UK supply of critical rare earth metals for electric vehicle manufacture.
The company remains on track to produce approximately 10 tonnes of separated high purity magnet rare earth oxides (REOs) in the next 12 months. This will make Ionic Technologies the UK’s largest producer of domestically produced magnet REOs.
