Highlights • Structural and magnetic properties of (Nd 1−x RE x) 13.6 Fe bal Co 6.6 Ga 0.6 B 5.6 (RE = Ce, La) melt-spun alloys. • Ce induced grain coarsening whereas La had a grain refinement effect. • Moderate Ce substitution mildly deteriorated magnetic properties. • Dilute La addition enhanced remanence and saturation polarization and maintained a high Curie temperature. • Ce substitution improved hot-workability. Abstract Ce and La as very cheap rare-earth elements were used to substitute Nd in nanocrystalline melt-spun ribbons of nominal compositions (Nd 1−x RE x) 13.6 Fe bal Co 6.6 Ga 0.6 B 5.6 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, ... 1 for RE = Ce) and (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, ... 0.5 for RE = La). Ce substitution gradually decreased the Nd 2 Fe 14 B lattice constants and produced CeFe 2 segregation from x = 0.7. La substitution led to lattice expansion along the c -axis and induced segregation of α-Fe and Nd 2 Fe 17 at x = 0.5. Grain coarsening was observed in the Ce-substituted samples while La was found to suppress grain growth. Cerium worsened the magnetic properties of as-spun powders after an initial improvement in (Nd 0.9 Ce 0.1) 13.6 Fe bal Co 6.6 Ga 0.6 B 5.6 alloy which showed a coercivity (µ 0 H c) of 1.54 T and a remanence (B r) of 0.81 T. Coercivity dropped with increasing La concentration but remanence increased from 0.73 T in the base composition to 0.88 T at x = 0.3. The Curie temperatures (T C) showed a slight decrease in both cases until x = 0.4. It then dropped abruptly for increasing Ce fractions and increased at x = 0.5 La. For x = 0.2 and 0.3 Ce and x = 0.2 La fractions, the melt-spun samples were further processed by hot-pressing and hot-deformation. The hot-pressed (Nd 0.8 La 0.2) 13.6 Fe bal Co 6.6 Ga 0.6 B 5.6 alloy measured lower coercivity but increased remanence comparing to the Ce-substituted alloys. However, this composition responded poorly to hot-deformation, severe cracking being induced in the process. Due to enhanced hot-workability, best magnetic properties were obtained after deformation for the (Nd 0.7 Ce 0.3) 13.6 Fe bal Co 6.6 Ga 0.6 B 5.6 alloy (µ 0 H c = 1.09 T, B r = 0.97 T and energy product (BH) max = 170 kJ/m3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]