According to CCTV news on July 5, Turkish media recently reported that a large amount of rare earth resources have been discovered in Eskisehir province in northwest Turkey, which has enough reserves to meet the global demand for 1,000 years.
Earlier, the Turkish government found 694 million tons of rare earth elements in the Beylikova region of Eskisehir, Turkey, according to the website of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. Drilling began in 2011, and after full analysis of samples taken, 694 million tons of rare earth elements were found, energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Said.
Turkey's state-owned mining and chemicals company, EtiMaden, will build a pilot plant in the area this year that will process 570,000 tonnes of ore a year, Fatih said. Production results from the pilot plant will be analyzed within a year, and construction of industrial production facilities will begin quickly upon completion.
He added that Turkey would be able to produce 10 of the 17 rare earth elements found at the mine, with 10,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides per year after ore processing, as well as 72,000 tonnes of barite, 70,000 tonnes of fluorite and 250 tonnes of thorium.
It is understood that rare earth, known as "industrial MONOsodium glutamate" and "modern industrial vitamin", is an important strategic resource as well as a non-renewable resource, which can be used in military, metallurgy, petrochemical and other fields. Lree mainly contains lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium and other elements, which can be used to manufacture automobile glass and ceramic pigments. Medium and heavy rare earths contain terbium, dysprosium and other elements, mainly used in aerospace, national defense, etc.
"The deposits discovered in Eskisehir province contain about 694 million tons of rare earths, which, when processed, could bring billions of dollars to the national economy," said Mekin Ceginci, board member of the Istanbul Association of Minerals and Metals Exporters (IMMIB). Our mineral resources will meet global demand for nearly 1,000 years while creating jobs for our young people."
An Guangyong, an expert of the credit management Committee of the Federation of Mergers and acquisitions association, said that rare earth minerals as non-renewable resources, its status is very important. In particular, rare earth ore has become an important component of the current tuyere industry such as semiconductor, new energy vehicles, batteries and other fields, which are strategic resources for a country.
The accuracy of the data is questionable
At present, the world's rare earth resources are mainly distributed in China, cis countries, the United States, India and Australia. China's rare earth reserves account for 24.03% of the world's total.
Foreign media reports said the reserves would make Turkey the world's second largest rare earth producer after China. China currently has the world's largest rare earth resources, with reserves of about 800 million tons.
In the view of Bai Wenxi, IPG China economist, the discovery of the mine will change the supply pattern and market structure of the global rare earth industry, and may even shock the existing price system.
Zhang Xiaorong, president of The Deeptech Research Institute, also said that if the data is reliable, it will undoubtedly form a major impact on the global rare earth market. It is unclear, however, how much of the valuable rare earth elements are present in the Turkish belt.
However, the industry agreed that the figure released by Turkey could not be confirmed and needs to be further verified. Researcher at the institute of the central university of finance and securities and futures, hai-ping Yang pointed out that the bank's research development department general manager of Inner Mongolia media content has yet to be verified, and the truth of reserves is true, what kind of rare earth minerals, which contain rare earth elements, rare earth ore mining conditions and the difficulty how, etc., all need further follow-up study.
Rare earths are a resource that needs to be refined before it can be used, and the refining technology determines the output, quality and utilization of rare earths, another industry insider said. It's not that foreign countries don't have enough rare earth reserves. For example, the United States has about 13 million tons of rare earth reserves, and Australia also has a lot of rare earth reserves. But their problem is that the processing and purification technology of rare earth cannot keep up.
Zhang Xiaorong also said that Turkey has not yet mastered the high purity of rare earth refining, refining technology, China still has a leading edge. Yang Said that China's rare earth smelting, separation and purification technology is the world's first class, rare earth functional materials processing technology is the world's first class, rare earth industry chain integrity is the world's first class.
According to a report released by the US Geological Survey in January 2022, the world's total reserves of rare earths, measured by rare earth oxide REO, are 120 million tons, of which China's reserves are 44 million tons, ranking first. In terms of mining volume, in 2021, the global mining volume of rare earth is 280,000 tons, and China's mining volume is 168,000 tons.
