Turkey discovers 694 million tons of rare earth, will it affect China?

What is the concept of 694 million tons of rare earth? Will it affect our country?

In 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey said that the total amount of rare earths in the world was 113 million tons, and the amount of ore was about 2 billion tons, of which about half of the reserves were in China. China will still dominate the global market. After all, Turkey has not yet mastered the high-level refining and refining technology of rare earths.

At present, China is the country with the strongest rare earth production and supply capacity in the world. It has mastered all the key technologies of rare earth processing and production, and occupies more than 70% of the global market, of which 86% are exported to the United States, Japan and Europe. However, the current global demand for rare earths is about 120,000 tons per year, which is quite a small number compared to the stock of rare earths.

The mining of rare earths brings huge environmental problems. Smelting and separation is a highly polluting process, and the development cost is very high. This is another reason why other countries have delayed development of rare earth resources.

China stands out in the rare earth field. In addition to its rich mineral deposits, another advantage is that it has formed a complete rare earth mining and refining system through years of construction. Among them, the rare earth department of Baotou Iron and Steel Company is the largest rare earth metal manufacturer in the world, with an annual output of About 50,000 tons, accounting for almost half of the world's annual rare earth production. The rare earths produced by Baotou come from iron ore, which is equivalent to the leftovers of steelmaking, so its cost is much lower than that of pure rare earth metal extraction and ore mining.

Some netizens are suspicious of this figure. After all, the total proven reserves in the world are only more than 100 million tons, and the whole of China is only more than 50 million tons. How can a mine in Turkey have 694 million tons?

More rare earth information

Rare earth reserves worldwide as of 2022 by country

Rare earth prices continued to rise, and NdFeB prices rose