IDTechEx has officially published results from its Critical Material Recovery 2025-2045: Technologies, Markets, Players” report, which forecasts that $110 billion worth of critical materials will be recovered annually from secondary sources by 2045, with a combined weight of over 3.3 million tonnes. Exploring technical innovations across four prominent critical material segments, including lithium-ion battery technology metals, rare-earth elements, platinum group metals, and semiconductors, the stated report effectively predicts that the critical material recovery market will grow at a CAGR of 12.7% from 2025 to 2045. More on the given forecasts would reveal that critical material recovery from secondary sources is expected to alleviate growing global material supply risks and their impact on regional economies. Having said so, high geographical localization of critical material market supply chains – both primary critical mineral deposits and processing steps – continue to impose major risks upon many global economies. These factors, on their part, are creating a strong market pull for critical material recovery technology which is markedly capable of leveraging secondary raw materials as an alternative to primary sources. In response, though, secondary raw materials have now emerged as compelling sources for critical material recovery. Put that alongside all those global megatrends in mass digitalization across consumer, transport, energy, communication, and industrial sectors, trends which have consolidated large volumes of critical materials into devices and equipment. Such a consolidation, like you can guess, has orchestrated the content of critical materials in anthropogenically derived sources to be higher than in primary mineral deposits. Hence, with the volume of critical material containing equipment reaching end-of-life increases year-on-year, the secondary source stream for critical material recovery becomes ever more valuable.
To compliment the growing need, as well as to navigate the challenge of synergizing current recovery procedures with the distinct composition of secondary materials that contain complex mixtures of critical materials with plastics, adhesives, films, low-value metals, and inorganic material, IDTechEx’s report evaluates 13 critical material extraction and recovery technologies. It also delivers at your disposal dedicated case studies on each technology’s commercial application in secondary sources. Leveraging IDTechEx’s extensive cross-discipline track-record in critical advanced materials, sustainability, and recycling technologies, the report is supported by the company’s knowledge when it comes to emerging technology markets dependent on critical materials, including batteries, energy storage, electric vehicles, the hydrogen economy, and semiconductors. Owing to that, it puts in front you a comprehensive history and context for each extraction and recovery technology with respect to both primary and secondary source critical materials. Furthermore, it gives you a more general overview of important technologies emerging for secondary source critical material recovery. Moving on, the report also brings forth 15 SWOT analyses of critical material extraction and recovery technologies, including hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, ionic liquids, solvent extraction, ion exchange, and direct recycling technologies. This is further backed up by the prospect of a meaningful discussion on the evolving value proposition attached to critical material recovery technologies for secondary sources.
Then, the report offers you extensive characterization of critical material market segments, including rare-earth elements, lithium-ion battery technology metals, semiconductors, and e-waste market, and platinum group metals. It even identifies key growth opportunities within secondary source markets for critical material recovery, as well as key player and business model analysis. Meant to evaluate and conceive a market map of value/supply chains, the report further has the means to perform a critical market evaluation using case studies that feature commercial successes and shortcomings for each critical material technology segment. Hold on, we still have a few bits left to unpack, considering IDTechEx’s study further reviews critical material recovery players throughout each key sector, including 25 company profiles. Beyond that, like we briefly touched upon, it also delivers 20-year market forecasts from 2025-2045 for four secondary source critical material recovery technology areas, including full narrative, price assumptions, limitations, and methodologies in support of each one.
