Japan tightens grip on Kazakhstan’s emerging rare earths sector
Kazakhstan is believed to hold important reserves of rare earths, used in a variety of industries including green technology, defence systems and consumer electronics. (Image: Charyn Grand Canyon, Kazakhstan. By Pikoso.kz |Shutterstock.com)
Japan is tightening the grip on Kazakhstan’s promising rare earth market as the Nipponese Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) signed this week a deal with local authorities to jointly explore for rare earths in the Karaganda and Kostanay regions.
The Kazakh Investments and Development Ministry said prospecting will begin during the second quarter of next year, adding they may also consider other joint developments, Akipress reported.
In May, Japanese Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano closed another key deal with the Central Asian country to build a major rare earths production factory in the north of Kazakhstan.
The giant Sumitomo Corp, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp and Kazatoprom are the three partners in the venture, which will provide Japan with more than 10% of its annual dysprosium requirements, according to EdgeKz.
China currently produces 90% of the global rare earth supply, while consuming 80%. But according to Chen Zhanheng, vice-secretary general of the Association of China Rare Earth Industry, local demand for the coveted elements, critical to the manufacture of many high-tech items, will increase 50% in the next five years, BNN.ca reported.
The most important current supply of yttrium —one of the most sought-after rare earths – in the world is found in the ion adsorption clay ores of Southern China. Kazakhstan is also believed to hold important reserves.
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2 Comments
Philip S. Baker
The agreement between Sumitomo Corporation and Kazatoprom to form a 51/49 percent joint venture to extract rare earth elements (REEs) from uranium tailings is quite significant and timely.
It is significant because Japan currently is 100% dependent on imports of REEs (particularly yttrium and dysprosium) from China. In the case of dysprosium, this translates into roughly 550 metric tonnes based on Japanese current levels of annual consumption in downstream applications. If the new joint venture is expected to supply approximately 10%-15% of Japanese annual dysprosium requirements, where will the residual 90%-85% be sourced from? China is the obvious answer, but the Chinese are earmarking an ever-increasing volume of dysprosium for use in their own downstream industries (e.g., hybrid and electric vehicles, catalysts, consumer electronics, motors, wind turbines and military applications). As a consequence, supply chains will necessarily have to be developed and rejuvenated in the rest of the world, including Lynas’ Mount Weld in Australia and Molycorp’s Mountain Pass in the US. Of course, recycling from end-of-use REEs-embedded products will also play a role, but more important will be the contribution from non-traditional sources such as heap leach projects involving the extraction of dysprosium, yttrium and other heavy and light REEs from bauxite tailings. Why are these non-traditional supply sources important? Because, before long, China, Kazakhstan and Russia are likely to coordinate the supply of REEs on to the global market much the same way as OPEC once did in the global oil patch.
Lastly, the Sumitomo/Kazatoprom agreement is timely in the light of a recent scientific breakthrough achieved at the University of Cambridge in the UK involving a substantial increase in the capacity (and efficiency) of lithium batteries. This represents a major boost to electro-mobility (i.e., electric vehicles) and the generation of cleaner energy from wind turbines. These two applications contain reasonable quantities of REEs.
John
Yttrium also has been found on the territory of Kazakhstan an it’s being successfully mined in that country. The mining companies are looking for international investing for that kind of industry: http://kazspecgeo.com/en/mining-metals/mining-of-rare-earth-metals.html