High abundant rare earth permanent magnets are generally refers to Ce-based magnets. PrNd accounts for approximately 90 percent of the raw material cost of NdFeB magnets. Rare earth material prices increased more than 5 times in 2010, and magnet users were facing a huge cost pressure. Then find low-cost magnets became the extremely urgent task since that time. The price of Ce is only one-tenth of PrNd, so the research progress of Ce-based magnets gained many interests from end-users. Cerium is the largest element in global rare earth reserves. Content of Cerium in Bastnasite is generally between 43% and 50%. Cerium has been widely used in polishing powder, hydrogen storage material, fuel cell and alloy steel. Most of rare earth elements are in the form of multiple-element symbiotic. The fast development of NdFeB magnet industry results in the serious backlog of Cerium, therefore, the rational utilization of Cerium has risen to a strategic level.
Pure CeFeB magnets have been proven a failure and the main work is focused on substituting Pr/Nd by Cerium to prepare the Ce-based magnet. The industrialization of Ce-based magnets is mainly conducted by Chinese researchers and conception of high-abundant rare earth permanent magnets emerged. Actually, some of small magnet manufacturers in China were already using Cerium and Lanthanum since many years ago. The Chinese research team proposes dual-main phase technology to develop the Ce-based magnets. The grade of Ce-based magnets has already expended to N45, N40, N38, N35, N33, N30, N28 and N38M. The introduction of Cerium will cause the decrease in intrinsic coercivity and then influences its Curie temperature and application environment.