I though this might be of interest

[Anonymous]

Takes about the use of rare earth metals.

Example: "Mr Stephens said Arafura’s project in Western Australia produces terbium, which sells for $800,000 a tonne. It is a key ingredient in low-energy light-bulbs."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6082464/World-faces-hi-tech-crunch-as-China-eyes-ban-on-rare-metal-exports.html

 

[hyderconsulting]

I did some work a while back on trying to get NIB's recycled which are Neodymium Iron Boron magnets. These are all they currently use in hard drives as far as I know. The only activity I could find was one broker company buying them but you had to be able to certify that any scrap magnet you sold to them was a NIB and do so by testing each one. Too much work!!! The price range though was somewhere above a dollar a pound.
I think the most important thing to note about this article is that somewhere down the road in time there will be a whole new class of scrap materials being recycled related to the rare earths and certain other rare elements such as Indium. You may find hard drive magnets worth something and flat screens which I believe use Indium having some recycling value to scrap buyers. There will a lot more different electronics worth recycling. regards, Chris.

 

[Palladium]

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090107/jack-lifton-age-technology-metals_all.htm

 

[MountainMike]

Palladium: very good article from iBtimes. Very insightful and future looking. ~mike