RECYCLING METHOD FOR RARE EARTH-TRANSITION METAL ALLOY

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED : To provide a low cost recycling method for a rare earth metal-transition metal alloy capable of obtaining powder having high performance, particularly, a recycling method suitable for a used sputtering target for a magnetooptical disk. SOLUTION : In the recycling method for the rare earth metal-transition metal alloy where the rare earth metal-transition metal alloy as the object for recycling is subjected to hydrogen storage treatment so as to be powdered, the powder obtained by the hydrogen storage treatment and CaCl2 are mixed, the mixture is heated to 900 to 1, 300°C in a nonoxidizing atmosphere, and the obtained product is collapsed in water and washed to obtain alloy powder with a low oxygen concentration.