Critical Material Recovery 2025-2045: Technologies, Markets, Players

IDTechEx forecasts that by 2045, approximately 3.3 million tonnes of critical materials will be recovered from secondary sources, equivalent to over US$110B in valuable materials. Secondary raw materials, including end-of-life equipment, automotive vehicles, electric vehicles, e-waste and waste scrap, represent a rapidly emerging source of valuable critical materials. This report characterizes the secondary source critical material recovery markets, key technologies, and players. The latest technical innovations are explored across four key critical material segments, including rare-earth elements, Li-ion battery technology metals, semiconductors, and platinum group metals. IDTechEx identifies a growing value opportunity, with the critical material recovery market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% from 2025-2045.

 

 

Critical material recovery from secondary sources looks to alleviate growing global material supply risks and their impact on regional economies. Critical materials, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, rare-earths elements, platinum group metals, silicon and other semiconductors underpin all modern technology. However, the high geographical localization of critical material market supply chains - both primary critical mineral deposits and processing steps - presents major risks to many global economies. These factors are creating a strong market pull for critical material recovery technology that utilizes secondary raw materials as an alternative to primary sources.

 

Fortunately, secondary raw materials are compelling sources for critical material recovery. Global megatrends in mass digitalization across consumer, transport, energy, communication, and industrial sectors have consolidated large volumes of critical materials into devices and equipment. The result of this is that content of critical materials in anthropogenically derived sources is often higher than in primary mineral deposits. As 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. This report evaluates the critical material market, analyzing the content of key secondary sources and forecasting the volume of secondary raw materials recoverable by 2045.

 

 

Critical material recovery technologies are largely ready to go, it is just a question of how easily they may be repurposed for secondary material sources. Critical material extraction and recovery technologies pioneered for primary mineral processing are scalable with high recovery efficiency, making them well-positioned for deployment in secondary source streams. A major challenge in deployment remains adapting the processes to the distinct composition of secondary materials, which contain complex mixtures of critical materials with plastics, adhesives, films, low value metals and inorganic material. This report evaluates 13 critical material extraction and recovery technologies, providing case studies on their commercial application in secondary sources.

 

Looking forward, critical platinum group metal (PGM) recovery from secondary sources will dominate market value share in 2025, but Li-ion battery technology metal and rare-earth element markets will emerge rapidly thereafter. The high market value of palladium, platinum, and rhodium and their high density in automotive scrap has defined the established PGM secondary source market for decades. However, growing consolidation of critical materials in decarbonized energy and transport technologies will drive a significant value transfer into their associated applications. As large volumes of electric vehicles reach their end-of-life by 2045, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese from batteries and rare-earth elements from drive motor magnets will emerge to represent the overwhelming majority of recoverable value.

 

This report leverages IDTechEx's extensive cross-discipline expertise in critical advanced materials, sustainability, and recycling technologies. The analyst team builds on decades of experience covering emerging technology markets dependent on critical materials, including batteries, energy storage, electric vehicles, the hydrogen economy, and semiconductors.

 

This report provides market intelligence about critical material recovery technologies for four key secondary source segments. The report characterizes globally identified emerging critical materials and the associated emerging secondary source recovery opportunities. This includes:

 

A review of the context and technology behind critical material recovery from secondary sources:

 

Full market characterization of critical material recovery technology in key secondary source segments:

 

Market analysis throughout:

 

This report provides the following information:

 

Technology trends & key player analysis:

 

Market Forecasts & Analysis:

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