Neodymium

Neodymium

Neodymium adds rare-earth processing and neodymium magnets to Factorio 2.1.

You wash stone into heavy mineral sand, sort out the monazite, dissolve it in acid and separate the liquor in separator banks. The neodymium is turned into magnets. Electric engines, express belts, assembler 3 and a few other later machines need them, and earlier machines get optional, cheaper recipes that use them. Cerium and lanthanum come out of the same liquor and make precision optics for production science and optional products such as cleaner solid fuel. Later you can separate dysprosium for high-temperature magnets, and build direct-drive wind turbines.

It needs only stone and water, no new ore. Factorio 2.1.23 or later. Space Age and all other mods are optional.

How the chain works

1. Stone washing in the mineral spiral: stone and water to heavy mineral sand.
2. Sand sorting: sand to monazite, with some iron ore back.
3. Monazite leach with sulfuric acid: monazite to monazite liquor.
4. Separation in separator banks, with extractant made from petroleum gas and acid:

• the rough cut splits the liquor into a neodymium-rich part and a light part;
• the neodymium cut splits the rich part again, and half of it goes back to the rough cut as monazite liquor.

Five rough-cut banks feed two neodymium-cut banks.

1. Neodymium oxide, then magnets: 1 oxide and 4 iron plate make 5 magnets. That is about 4 stone per magnet.
2. Light oxide from the light liquor: the cerium and lanthanum.

Buildings

• Mineral spiral (4×4): washes stone. One spiral supplies about five magnets per second.
• Separator bank (3×8): runs every separation step.
• Magnetic separator (3×3, Magnetic separation research): gets a fifth more iron from ore, sorts sand, and with Space Age sorts magnets from Fulgora's scrap. Every operation takes one magnet and returns it with 98% probability: loop the return and supply replacements. Assemblers sort sand and electromagnetic plants sort scrap without operating magnets. The feed belt animates while working. Iron-rich sand sorting trades 4 washed sand for 3 iron ore, giving up the monazite; with Caesium, X-ray sorters recover copper from the same sand instead.
• Direct-drive wind turbine (5×5): 150 kW on Nauvis, day and night, no fuel. Output follows the planet's air pressure, up to 4 times Nauvis, and the turbine's quality. It can be turned off in the startup settings.

What needs magnets

Only machines you research after Neodymium processing, so nothing you already use gets more expensive:

• electric engines, express belts, and assembler 3;
• with Space Age, turbo belts and stack inserters.

Power armor MK2, spidertrons, satellites and fusion generators need high-temperature magnets.

Earlier machines keep their normal recipes, and after the Magnet motors research each gets an optional magnet recipe with reduced material costs:

• mining drills;
• pumpjacks and pumps; pumps keep one engine per pump and save the separate steel plate;
• offshore pumps;
• fast inserters;
• locomotives (Electric traction research), with half the engine units.

Pumps and fast inserters share one magnet across two outputs; offshore pumps share one across three. The other ingredients and crafting time scale with the batch.

Cerium and lanthanum

The light rare-earth stream supplies precision optics: lanthanum oxide, polishing powder and stone or the pack's glass/silica make lenses for industrial inspection. Cerium separation unlocks them with blue science; production science consumes one optics per three packs. Other uses remain optional:

• Treated solid fuel: same energy as solid fuel, half the pollution.
• Tailings landfill: landfill from less stone plus light oxide.
• Polishing powder: more wafers or crystals, in packs that have them.
• Cerium separation (blue science) splits the light liquor into ceria and lanthanum oxide:
• catalytic oil cracking, where the catalyst mostly comes back;
• rocket fuel with half the light oil;
• a stronger catalyst from lanthanum;
• metal-hydride accumulators in packs with nickel.

Dysprosium

The Heavy rare earths research (up to yellow science) adds two more separation steps that take dysprosium out of the neodymium liquor. One dysprosium oxide comes from the liquor of about 200 magnets. Ten magnets and one dysprosium oxide make ten high-temperature magnets.

Space Age