Experts have question regarding the legitimacy of North Korea’s estimated reserves of rare earths, used from computers to cars and defense missiles. (Image by xtock|Shutterstock.com)
The news of a 216 million tons rare earths deposit discovered in North Korea over a year ago, grabbed headlines and made analysts speculate about the value of what is believed to be the world’s largest deposit of the coveted minerals, used in electronics such as smartphones and high definition televisions.
But after months of anticipation it seems that experts are not sold on the legitimacy of the reserve estimates, originally said to be more than double the global known sources and six times the reserves in China, the market leader.
Kim Jong-un’s administration has not stopped advertising the discovery. Just a few days ago, it posted an article about the “massive amounts of rare earth elements” the country holds on the foreign publicity website “Today Choson.”
“The numbers are not backed up with any solid data, it is nothing but a list of what they have under the ground. [The author of the study, Dr Louis Schurmann] has absolutely no credibility. Whatever he says, I take it as hoax,” Choi Kyung-soo, a senior researcher at the North Korea Resource Institute told NK News.
So far only one country — China — controls the rare earth market, holding somewhere between 80% and 95% of production. In the last decade Beijing tried imposing export quotas, but the World Trade Organization deemed them as illegal. It has since changed its approach and is trying to limit exports by taxing them heavily.
If not North Korea, then who?
The arrival of North Korea as a second top provider of rare earths, as well as other nations — including the U.S., Canada, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Australia and Greenland — gave the industry hopes of market diversification.
However, a representative from North Korea’s Information Systems for Resource of told NK News he is not sure whether British Islands-based private equity firm SRE Minerals Limited, which made the touted discovery in Dec. 2013, will ever be able to back up its claim.
“[The 2013 study carried out by an Australian geologist Louis W. Schurmann] does not really give us the solid proof about amount of DPRK’s rare minerals nor how profitable it is,” he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile Molycorp’s Mountain Pass mine in California — the biggest rare earth project outside of China — has not lived up to expectations. And other rare earth companies, mainly Canadian, have shed nearly all of their value in the last few years.
4 Comments
Mike Failla
Great. Lunatics with needed resources!
Mike Failla
Rhonda. Never forward your crap to me again okay? Not interested. There is craigs list for this stuff. I don’t care what you do and I don’t care what you have but I do know this, it doesn’t belong on this site.
Chris Smith
Interesting article on a possible N Korean hoaks re REE. Thanks.
But how can you say – quote”
Meanwhile Molycorp’s Mountain Pass mine in California — the biggest rare
earth project outside of China — has not lived up to expectations. And
other rare earth companies, mainly Canadian, have shed nearly all of
their value in the last few years.- unquote
and not mention Lynas which has been producing REE for over a year and is steadily ramping up to over 15,000 tpa (and of course Molycorp was actually in Ch 11 bankrucy recently). No Canadian companies are yet in production.
alan seymour
As a geologist who has worked on a few exploration drilling projects, I know that exploration drill sites leave a distinctive pattern observable by Google Earth imagery. In general the pattern involves a network of newly cut dirt roads, with each road ending with a newly cut semi-circular area 10 – 20 meters in diameter (area needed for the rig, mud-pit and support equipment to maneuver). In finding a map produced by SRE Minerals (company who claimed to discover the Jongju Rare Earth Deposit), the location of the deposit is projected at approximately Latitude 39.8264°, Longitude 125.2405°. In looking at Google Earth imagery from early-mid 2014 in area of the claimed deposit, I find no evidence of exploration drilling (distinctive road and drill pad cut patterns). If there was no exploration drilling, then the claimed deposit is extremely unlikely.