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A government panel is working on a strategy to encourage discovery of rare earth elements in India, Economic Times has revealed:
“The committee will look into the current availability of rare earth and energy critical elements and decide the strategy for production to ensure long-term raw material security. It will also encourage the recovery of ECEs which can be found as byproducts in the production of other minerals.”
The news comes on the same day as an announcement that China will appeal a World Trade Organisation ruling that it illegally restricted exports of certain rare and specialty metals and minerals including bauxite, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon metal, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus and zinc, MINING.com reported.
The United States, European Union and Mexico argued that the minerals are key inputs for numerous industries and any cut in supplies could lead to sharp spikes in world prices. The complainants fear a similar situation to rare earths where the price of certain elements have tripled thanks to export cuts and China’s virtual monopoly on production.
China is by far the largest supplier of rare earth elements that are used in a number of high-tech industries and renewable energy applications including wind turbines, smartphones and batteries used in electric cars.
According to Economic Times, state-owned Indian Rare Earth has not mined rare earths since 2004, although the company has set up a processing plant in Orissa with capacity to produce 11,000 tonnes by early next year. At the same time, several companies are getting into rare earth production in India, anticipating more supply shortage from China:
Toyota Tsusho, a part of Toyoto Motors, is setting up a rare earth processing plant in Vishakapatnam Industrial Development Zone, with a partial supply of mixed rare earth chloride from Indian Rare Earths. German chemical company BASF and Indian Oil Corporation are also reported to have plans to produce rare earth minerals from catalysts used in petroleum refinery.
Comments
Raviksinha.Ravi
Good development in the field of REE exploitation.
I feel that India should not export the raw material but should widen its efforts to go in for production of value added products.
Without ignoring the conservation, Pvt players should be encouraged to set up value adding products plants and also R& D need to be imported to utilize the low grade REE deposits.
Ravi Sinha