Honda has announced it has teamed up with a leading Japanese Company to develop what is being hailed as the world’s first mass-production rare earth recycling process.

The companies confirmed late last week that they have developed a new technique for extracting 17 rare chemical elements from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from Honda hybrid vehicles at dealers in Japan, North America and Europe.

Previous techniques for extracting rare earth metals have been undertaken on a relatively small scale and have required highly controlled conditions. But while Honda has provided relatively few details on the precise nature of its process, it claims to have developed the first process in the world to “extract rare earth metals as part of a mass-production process at a recycling plant”.

The company added that the technique had already been successfully trialled on around 2,000 batteries.

“Previously, Honda had been applying a heat treatment to used nickel-metal hydride batteries and recycling nickel-containing scrap for recycling use as a raw material for stainless steel,” the company said in a statement.

“However, the successful stabilisation of the extraction process at the Japanese plant made possible the extraction of approximately 80 per cent of rare earth metals contained in used nickel-metal hydride batteries, with purity as high as that of newly mined and refined metals.”

The company said it would use the extracted metals in new nickel-metal hydrid batteries and other components, adding that it is also investigating techniques for extracting a wider range of rare earth metals.

Growing numbers of firms are currently stepping up efforts to recycle or find alternatives to rare earth metals, after China announced it will place export limits on some rare earth materials, sparking fears of a supply crunch.