Nikkei reported that Mitsubishi Materials Corporation has embarked on full scale efforts to develop technology that can recover and reuse rare earth metals from magnets used in appliances.

The move is in response to China's brief halt on exports of the metals to Japan after a maritime incident last month.

Mitsubishi Materials hopes to research low cost technologies and be ready for practical application by 2014. The technology would recycle metals like neodymium and dysprosium from devices like magnets used in air conditioner compressors.

The company would mechanize the disassembly of discarded consumer appliances and develop other techniques to raise the efficiency of the operations.

(Sourced from Nikkei.com)