I saw the news this morning that Turkey discovered a giant rare earth deposit, containing about 694 million tons of rare earths, which is enough for human use for 1,000 years. After mining and processing, it can bring billions of dollars in revenue to Turkey. My first reaction after reading this was that this might be fake news.
Rare earth is not a single element, but a general name for 17 metal elements. According to their physical and chemical properties, they can be divided into light rare earths and heavy rare earths, including 7 types of light rare earths and 10 types of heavy rare earths. my country's rare earth resources are basically heavy rare earths.
Rare earths are known as "industrial gold". Due to their excellent physical properties in light, electricity, magnetism, etc., rare earths are widely used in military, petrochemical, textile, ceramics, glass, permanent magnets, agriculture, etc. , is an important mineral resource indispensable to modern society.
[These 17 metal elements are collectively called rare earths]
In 2020, the world's proven rare earth reserves were 116 million tons, and my country's rare earth reserves ranked first in the world, with about 44 million tons. The rare earth deposit discovered in Eskisehir Province in northwestern Turkey has a reserve of 694 million tons, which is nearly 6 times the current global proven reserves and 15 times that of our country.
In other words, Turkey not only became the country with the largest rare earth reserves in the world, but also monopolized 85% of global rare earth resources. When my country's rare earth output was at its highest, it only accounted for 50% of the Golden Globe's rare earth output. This change in energy structure will bring huge changes to the world structure.
[The Mountain Pass rare earth mine in the United States was closed in 2001]
As for the idea that it can be used by the whole world for 1,000 years, you can only listen to this statement. In 1960, the Mountain Pass Mine, the largest single rare earth mine in the United States, was discovered. At that time, the United States announced that the reserves of this mine were enough for the world to use for 280 years.
But only 20 years later, the United States announced that the mine's reserves had dropped to only enough for the world to use for 100 years. In 1980, I did not export rare earths on a large scale. The United States did not deliberately release such news in order to protect its own rare earths. It can only be said that the amount of rare earths used is impossible to estimate and will continue to be refreshed due to the development of science and technology.
[Producing one F35 requires 417 kilograms of rare earths]
For example, the US military's F-35 stealth fighter requires 417 kilograms of rare earths for each aircraft. The US military plans to manufacture 2,500 F-35s. This alone will consume 104 tons of rare earths. This was completely unimaginable in the 1980s, because there was no concept of stealth fighters at that time.
Ceckinci, a member of the Turkish Mining and Metal Export Federation, said that the processing of these rare earth ores will bring billions of dollars in revenue to Turkey. But even if you convert it based on the maximum US$9.9 billion, you will find that the profit per ton of rare earths is only US$7,000. If calculated in 1,000 years, the annual income would be only 9 million US dollars.
Although the current price of rare earths continues to fall ( cerium oxide with a purity of 99.9% is as low as 18 yuan per kilogram), a rare earth mine that can be used by humans for thousands of years can only generate a few billion dollars in revenue, which is really low. Common sense.
[my country’s leadership in the field of rare earths is not only in terms of reserves, but also in technology, with more than 230,000 patents alone]
As a NATO country, Turkey has discovered such a huge amount of rare earth resources, which is a good thing for us. It’s still a bad thing, it’s hard to predict now, but it may not be a good thing for Turkey. The United States will definitely do everything possible to control their rare earth resources to get rid of its dependence on China's rare earths.
But currently, China is the only country in the world that controls the entire rare earth industrial chain of upstream raw ore mining, midstream smelting and processing, and downstream applications. In other words, if we don’t cooperate with China, no matter how many rare earth minerals we discover, they will just rot in the ground.
Therefore, China is not only the largest exporter of rare earths in the world, but also the largest importer of rare earths in the world. Because the rare earths mined by other countries cannot be refined by themselves, they can only be exported to China for refining. For example, in 2019, the United States mined 26,000 tons of rare earths, and 24,000 tons were exported to China. In 2019, China imported a total of 44,000 tons of rare earths, ranking first in the world in terms of rare earth imports.
Now that Turkey has discovered so many rare earths, can we stop our domestic rare earth mining and deepen cooperation with Turkey to achieve mutual help and win-win results?
