METI Accelerates Substitute Material Development for Rare Metals

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan will accelerate development of substitute materials for dysprosium, used for high-performance permanent magnets inside electric vehicle motors, by utilization of a supplementary budget for fiscal 2009 ending March 2010. Japanese government decided to give a supplementary budget of 1.53 billion yen for the national project to develop substitute materials for rare metals to realize low carbon oxide society. METI will advance some equipment introduction for the dysprosium related project initially planned in fiscal 2011.

METI will also utilize another supplementary budget at 3 billion yen for the national project to develop rare metal composite materials for super-light-weight and high-performance motors. The ministry targets to develop a new technology to reduce yttrium consumption volume in next generation power generators and medical diagnosis equipment.

The both projects will be actually operated by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) by commissioning the development works to private associations or enterprises.