Recovery of Neodymium as a Value Added product from Waste Hard Disk of Personal Computers

Development of  technique for the effective recovery of neodymium as value added product from magnets of discarded hard disk.

In process under optimized condition, sulfuric acid leaches 98% Nd, 97% Fe, 60% Ni and 7.5% B from hard disk, after which selective precipitation of Nd and leaching of the precipitate with 5-20% HF solution was carried out. The Neodymium thus obtained is used in the scintillation detectors, magnets, laser materials, rare earth flouride crystal glass optical fibre,aviation magnesium alloy  for metallurgic industry and also in electrolytic production of metal addictives.

• The solid residue thus obtained are utilized as non-hazardous filling material.
• Effective amount of i.e. 1-5 L effluent generated is recycled after proper treatment.