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United States
Critical Materials Recycling
A privately held Boone, Iowa recycler that uses acid-free dissolution recycling (ADR), exclusively licensed from Iowa State University and developed at Ames National Laboratory, to recover rare earth oxides from hard-disk-drive magnets, magnet swarf and other end-of-life magnets.
Points to check
Facts from the sources on this page that a reader should weigh before relying on the company's own figures.
- No annual rare earth oxide output has been published; the 2025 capacity figures do not state a time basis (TechConnect World 2025 abstract).
- The demonstration plant (over 100 t rare earth oxide) was described as under construction in 2025 with no completion date given (TechConnect World 2025 abstract).
- In October 2024 the CEO said the company had no contract with wind energy companies for decommissioned turbines (Canary Media / Iowa Capital Dispatch).
- Commercial production planned for August 2023 was delayed by equipment and supply chain problems (Resource Recycling, 2023).
At a glance
- Founded
- Not established in public sources — Formed to commercialize ADR after early industrial development by TdVib LLC; a 2023 report described it as a new company taking over pilot testing in August 2023. No incorporation year found.
- Headquarters
- Boone, Iowa, United States
- Ownership
- Private. Early investors and industry partners are mentioned without names or amounts (Ames Alliance Traction magazine, September 2025).
- Stage
- Ramping. Pilot plant in Boone in commercial production of rare earth oxide since about 2024-2025 (over 20 t stated); a demonstration plant of over 100 t was under construction in 2025. No annual output published.
- Listing
- Private. Private. TdVib LLC is a related Boone company under the same CEO; the corporate link is described inconsistently.
- Revenue
- Not publicly disclosed. This company does not publish revenue and no named third party has published an estimate of it.
Capacity
Each date below links to the document the figure came from. A capacity figure with no source is not on this page.
| What | Figure | Status | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boone pilot plant, rare earth oxide production (time basis not stated) | Over 20 t rare earth oxide | Operating | 2025 |
| Boone demonstration plant, rare earth oxide production (time basis not stated) | Over 100 t rare earth oxide | Under construction | 2025 |
| Boone pilot-scale tanks, feed throughput | Rare earth material from more than 2 million hard drives per year (CEO statement) | Operating | Oct 2024 |
| Pilot plant, rare earth oxide output expected when fully operational (2023 plan) | About 60 t/yr rare earth oxides | Historical | 2023 |
| Western Digital / Microsoft / PedalPoint pilot program, feed processed (one campaign) | About 50,000 lb of shredded end-of-life HDDs, mounting caddies and other materials; about 90% recovery of rare earth and elemental materials | Historical | Apr 2025 |
Narrative
Critical Materials Recycling, Inc. (CMR) is a privately held company in Boone, Iowa, led by president and CEO Dan Bina, that recovers rare earth oxides from end-of-life magnets using acid-free dissolution recycling (ADR). The process was invented in 2015 at the Critical Materials Innovation Hub at Ames National Laboratory, and CMR holds an exclusive global license from the Iowa State University Research Foundation. TdVib LLC, another Boone company Bina leads, did early industrial development of ADR; sources describe CMR variously as a sister company of TdVib, a subsidiary of TdVib, and not legally linked to it. A 2023 report said CMR would take over pilot testing in August 2023, that commercial production had been delayed by equipment and supply chain problems, and that the fully operational pilot plant was expected to produce about 60 t/yr of rare earth oxides. In September 2024 CMR was one of six winners of the final phase of the DOE Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize, receiving $500,000 in cash and $100,000 in national laboratory vouchers. In October 2024 Bina said the pilot-scale tanks could process material from more than 2 million hard drives a year, and that the company had no wind turbine decommissioning contract. In April 2025 Western Digital, Microsoft, PedalPoint Recycling and CMR reported a pilot program in which about 50,000 lb of shredded end-of-life drives and related material from Microsoft U.S. data centers was processed, with CMR extracting rare earth oxides and about 90% recovery of rare earth and elemental materials. A 2025 conference abstract described ongoing commercial production at the Boone pilot plant (over 20 t of rare earth oxide) and a demonstration plant under construction (over 100 t of rare earth oxide), without stating a time basis. In August 2025 Bina said CMR had recovered rare earths from more than 1 million hard drives, had secured funding to process wind turbine generator magnets, and was about to expand in the Boone Industrial Park. No annual output figure has been published.
Where public sources disagree
- Pilot plant scale: Resource Recycling (2023) said the fully operational pilot plant was expected to produce about 60 t/yr of rare earth oxides; the TechConnect World 2025 abstract describes the pilot plant as over 20 t of rare earth oxide production.
- Corporate link to TdVib: an Ames National Laboratory repost (October 2024) calls CMR a subsidiary of TdVib; the TechConnect World 2025 abstract calls it a sister company; Resource Recycling (2023) quotes the CEO saying the companies are not legally linked.
Sources
- At-scale HDD rare earth capture program launched (Western Digital release) — StorageNewsletter (2025-04-18)
- Commercialization of ADR technology (abstract) — TechConnect World 2025 (2025)
- Iowa company recycles rare earth materials from wind turbines, electronics — Canary Media / Iowa Capital Dispatch (2024-10-25)
- Ernst visits CMR facility in Boone — KWBG (2025-08-14)
- Urban Mining: Reclaiming Rare Earth Elements (Traction magazine) — Ames Alliance (2025-09)
- DOE awards $3.6 million in final phase of Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize — U.S. Department of Energy (2024-09-19)
- ADR pilot plant and commercialization (e-scrap) — Resource Recycling (2023)
- Des Moines Register: Iowa company wins prize (repost) — Ames National Laboratory (2024-10-27)
- Des Moines Register: Iowa startup pioneers rare-earth recycling (repost) — Ames National Laboratory (2026-01-26)
How this page is sourced
Everything here comes from public sources — company filings, annual reports, exchange announcements, government releases and trade press. Every figure is linked to the document it came from and carries the date that document was published, because a capacity number without a date is not a fact, it is a rumor with a decimal point.
What is deliberately absent: material nonpublic information. I have spent more than two decades in this industry and a good deal of what I know about these companies I learned under NDA. Those obligations do not expire and they do not bend for a website. Nothing I have been told in confidence appears here in any form, and nothing on this page — or missing from it — should be read as a signal about what I know privately. I hold NDAs absolutely. It is the reason clients tell me things.
Judgment is the other thing left out on purpose. This page reports what has been published and who published it. Whether a target is credible, whether a ramp will hold, whether a capacity figure survives contact with the plant behind it — that is the work I do for clients, and it does not belong in a free reference page.
Where public sources disagree, I say so rather than picking a winner. Where a figure has not been published, the field says so rather than carrying an estimate. An empty field is information too.
Public filings tell you what a company has said. Whether it holds up is a different question, and the one I get hired to answer.
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