According to foreign media reports, rare earth resources that can be used globally for 1,000 years have been discovered in the northwest of Turkey. It is reported that the local proven rare earth reserves have reached 694 million tons. This discovery has also allowed Turkey has become the world's largest country in rare earth reserves.
So, what are “rare earths”? What is its use value?
Rare earth is a kind of oxide containing a variety of metal elements. From a classification point of view, the metal elements contained are different, and it is also divided into two categories: heavy rare earth and light rare earth .
From the perspective of use value, rare earths are also called "industrial gold". They can be combined with a variety of materials to create products with higher quality and higher performance.
From the perspective of applications, rare earths are indispensable in military industry, petrochemical industry, metallurgy, glass ceramics, new materials, new energy, and even digital, agriculture and other fields. It can be said that after decades of development, rare earths have already A stable supply and demand industrial chain has been formed around the world, which also means that whichever country has rich rare earth resources is equivalent to holding a "golden key" for industrial development.
One can imagine how much value the rare earth resources discovered by Turkey this time will bring to Turkey. Especially for those countries that are very short of rare earth resources in their own countries, they will also establish a good relationship with Turkey in order to obtain rare earths. After all, after Turkey's rare earths are officially mined in the future, who will sell them and how they will be sold will be Turkey's own decision.
So, what are my country’s rare earth resource reserves?
Speaking of which, before Turkey discovered such a large-scale rare earth resource this time, our country was the world's largest rare earth reserve country. In the middle and late part of the last century, our country's proven rare earth reserves reached 10% of the global rare earth reserves. More than 71%. However, because our country was not aware of the important value of rare earths at that time, this also led to our country’s rare earths being sold in large quantities at low prices and sold abroad.
For example, more than 10 years ago, Japan purchased a large amount of rare earths from my country, and because my country's management of rare earths was lax at that time, this also led to the serious smuggling of rare earths in my country in the past because people lacked awareness of protection and did not understand Regarding the true value of rare earths, many people have been selling rare earths at low prices for a long time for immediate profit. From 1995 to 2005 alone, our country lost billions of dollars in foreign exchange due to the "low selling" of rare earths.
It can be said that at that time, Japan, the United States and other countries obtained a large amount of "cheap rare earths" from our country. It was not until 2010 that many developed countries began to stop developing their own rare earth minerals , and our country gradually became aware of Only after realizing the true value of rare earths did my country begin to reduce exports of rare earths and strictly control rare earth resources.
However, it is already too late at this time. In more than 20 years, my country's rare earth reserves have changed from 71% of the world's total to only 23%. What is the concept? To put it simply, our country’s current rare earth reserves are only enough for our country’s own use for about 15 years. After that, unless new rare earth mines are discovered in our country, our country’s rare earth resources will be completely exhausted and we will begin to completely rely on rare earths. Imported.
So, what is the relationship between my country and Türkiye? Will Türkiye sell us rare earths in the future?
Before the discovery of a large rare earth mine in Turkey, although my country's rare earth reserves were already very small, it was still the world's largest country in rare earth reserves. In addition, countries with rare earth resources include Mongolia, Brazil, Russia, the United States, India, Australia, Greenland, South Africa and Canada.
It is worth mentioning that there is another country that is not on the list - Japan. In 2011, Japanese media reported that a 730-year-old stone was found in the waters near Minamitori Island in Japan. rare earth resources, however, until today, Japan has not developed it.
As for the reason, Japan’s current technology is still unable to develop this seabed rare earth mine. Therefore, it is equivalent to Japan guarding a “rare earth bank”, but it still does not have any rare earths and can only continue to rely on imports.
At the same time, although the United States, Australia, Canada and other countries have rare earth mines, they have stopped developing them more than 10 years ago because their reserves are not large. Therefore, after Turkey officially develops rare earth mines, it is bound to become a global The focus, after all, is that everyone is waiting to buy rare earths from Turkey.
In recent years, under my country's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, the relationship between my country and Turkey is still very good. Especially when Turkey experienced the economic crisis in the past few years, my country also extended a helping hand. Therefore, in the future, my country's rare earth resources If it is exhausted, the possibility of cooperating with Turkey to develop rare earth mines and purchasing rare earths from Turkey is still very high.
However, the United States needs to worry. Because the relationship between the United States and Turkey has always been bad, especially in recent years, it has become increasingly worse. Therefore, in the future, the United States will have to work hard to import rare earths from Turkey on a large scale. Friends, you What do you think?
