Russia has the second largest reserves of rare earths in the world, but accounts for only nearly 2% of global rare earth output. Development is hampered by a lack of domestic demand, while Russia imports up to 90% of rare earths to meet the needs of domestic enterprises.
Ministries, departments and branches have tried to solve this paradox for many consecutive years. It seems like everything is finally starting to move forward - according to Sputnik.
Rare earth metals include 15 elements in the Lanthan group combined with yttrium and scandium. They have similar chemical properties and often appear together in nature.
The name "rarely land" appeared at the end of the 18th century because at that time people believed that these elements were relatively rare. Because these elements form flammable oxides in water, they are called "land".
Rare earth is being widely used in radio electronics, tool making, nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical industry, metal smelting and defense. Strategic reserves for rare earths are an important factor in global competition and national security.
For example, US defense corporations must have up to 417 kg of rare earth metal to produce an F-35 stealth fighter. And lutetium, one of the rarest and most expensive types of soil, is used in rocket-powered engines.
Un exploited potential
The largest player in the global rare earth market is China, which accounts for 62% of global output and more than 42% of rare earth reserves. The area with the most rare land is after Obo in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which provides up to 1/3 of the global output.
China fully meets its demand for this strategic raw material and is controlling the global market. China accounts for about 72% of the total consumption of rare earths in the world.
In Russia, the largest reserves of rare earths are concentrated in hard-to-reach and sparsely exploited areas. Only the Lovozerskoye mine on the Kola peninsula is active and provides loparite ores with quite high exploitation difficulties.
In addition to rare earths, the Lovozerskoye mine exploits tantali, niobi and titanium. As a related ingredient, rare earths are also exploited from apatite-nepheline ore at some mines in the Murmansk region.
The enriched ore is sent to the only magnesium factory in Solikamsk in the country, where intermediate products are obtained - processing rare earth metals by dissolving oxide or carbonate, then thickening the solution.
To extract metals needed for industry, it is necessary to separate them into oxides.
No Russian enterprise can do this on an industrial scale. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these enterprises remained in Kazakhstan and Estonia. Previously, the concentrated substance was sent to those enterprises for treatment, now this program is not working.
As a result, despite having one of the world's largest reserves of rare earths metals, Russia depends 100% on the import of this strategic raw material. Rare earth mines have not been exploited, and rare earth refineries have not been built because there is no demand.
Breaking the curve
In July 2019, the government and the Russian nuclear energy corporation Rosatom signed a cooperation agreement on developing the high-tech sector of "new materials and materials technology" in the Russian Federation.
At the 6th GORPROMEXPO-2022 National Mineral Excavation Forum in Moscow, Mr. Andrey Shevchenko, technology director of Rosatom, outlined major goals with a clear roadmap including key projects on rare earths.
A Rosatom representative noted that the tasks are set for 2025 - reducing import dependence to 50%, increasing rare earth output by up to 2.7 thousand tons. According to this roadmap, by 2030, Russia will be able to meet 100% of domestic demand, producing 7.5 thousand tons of rare earth metals per year.
"Forgetting Treasure"
According to the author of the roadmap, the first step is the project related to phosphogypsum, a by-product in the production of lion manure. Of which, rare earth metals in the series group account for 0.4-0.5% and stronti metals - which are equally in demand in high-tech and nuclear industries - account for 1.5%.
The "white mountains" of phosphogypsum are scattered across the country. Skygrad Company in the town of Korolev near Moscow is the first enterprise in Russia to launch a rare earth refinery.
The company continues to operate. By 2023, Skygrad plans to produce 500 tons of distilled oxide per year, in 2024 - up to 1,000 tons, in 2025 - 2,000 tons.
Atomredmetzoloto is also implementing a similar project on a large scale but one year later.
This output is enough to meet domestic demand. Then it is necessary to exploit new mines, build large processing enterprises to supply rare earth metals to the high-tech industry and penetrate foreign markets.
According to experts, the Tomtor mine alone, after completing the exploration and production at full capacity, will meet up to 10% of the world's demand for rare earths. Moreover, the ore of the Tomtor mine contains the rarest and heaviest group of soil.
Currently, the two main issues are logistics and finding investors, which are becoming more complicated due to the impact of economic sanctions.
