Urban Mining Company&nbsp;turns used magnets into thermostats.

Used magnets become thermostats

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By using the magnets found in end-of-use products as a feedstock, Urban Mining Company (UMC) has patented a process whereby they are able to reprocess the scrap magnets into new, custom made magnets. UMC’s magnets not only come with improved properties compared to the starting material, the fact that UMC uses recycled magnet as feedstock allows them to protect themselves from raw material price fluctuations that plague the rest of the market. This process is known as Magnet-to-Magnet™, or M2M™. Being able to produce magnets in this way reduces energy consumption, the impact on the environment, as well as the landfill space occupied by end-of-use magnets.

Urban Mining Company - Finding rare earth elements above ground, not underground

Mining is the most important source of all the raw materials used to build and power up our modern societies, ranging from metals such as iron and aluminum used for the Construction of automobiles and other machinery, steel used for heavy construction works, Uranium used as fuel for power plants, and lithium and nickel used for making smartphone batteries. The pace at which the global population is growing, and technology is evolving, continuously calls for more and more extraction of these mineral resources in order to satisfy the ever-growing global needs. However, these resources are finite, and their extraction Comes at a cost to the environment; so, scientists are obliged to look towards more sustainable and practical ways of supplying these resources without compromising the environment or future generations. One of the ways forward is to use tailings sands and mine waste rock aggregates for construction works, thereby reducing the need to mine new resources (sand). Sand on the other hand which &nbsp;is a non-renewable resource and is the &nbsp;is the second most extracted natural resource after water by volume used in almost all sectors of development such as construction and manufacturing processes constitutes 85% of material mined from the earth. Despite the importance of sand, the illegal, unsustainable overexploitation in developing countries possesses a huge threat to ecosystems and community. To solve this problem, tailings sand and other mines wastes aggregates&nbsp;&nbsp;hold the potential of being used for construction purposes for example construction of houses, embankments, Pavements and other related infrastructure