Digging deep: why the production of rare earth metals is important for Russia
By 2030, the total investment in the development of separation production of rare earth metals (REM) will reach 400 billion rubles. This information was provided by Denis Manturov, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Rare earth metals are becoming one of the key factors of Russia's technological independence, since the development of microelectronics, nuclear, aviation and defense industries is impossible without them. Despite some of the world's largest reserves of raw materials, dependence on imports of high-value-added products remains. How exactly Russia plans to develop the REM market is described in the Izvestia article.
Stocks and relevance
The balance reserves of rare earth metals in Russia amount to 28.5 million tons, the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told Izvestia. At the same time, the group of rare earth metals includes 15 minerals (samarium, yttrium, lutetium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, praseodymium, thulium, lanthanum, cerium, ytterbium, terbium, neodymium, gadolinium, europium, promethium).
"All deposits are complex, that is, minerals can only be extracted together, in one ore. And already from the ore, minerals can be separated into individual components," the ministry explained.
By 2030, about 400 billion rubles are planned to be invested in projects for the separation of rare and rare earth elements, as well as the production of finished products. The separation of rare earth elements remains the most expensive direction.
Investor interest is high, but such projects require significant investments. The government intends to support them through a cluster platform, compensating for part of the interest rates on loans, as well as reimbursing consumers for the price difference so that the cost of Russian rare earths is comparable to supplies from China.
Reducing dependence
By 2030, it is planned to increase the production of domestic REM from 50 tons in 2024 to 3 thousand tons. At the same time, the task is to reduce dependence on imported supplies from 75% to 45%. Another direction will be the introduction of technologies for extracting valuable elements from electronic scrap and various waste.
Today, the main players in the field of rare earth metals mining are China, Australia and the United States, the head of the Popular Front reminded Izvestia. Analytics" by Olga Pozdnyakova. Moreover, China is the dominant player with over 60% of the total global production of REM. Russia has its own significant reserves of REM, but now it occupies less than 5% of this entire market.
Meanwhile, REM plays a key role in the electronics and defense industries, so the desire for independence in this area is understandable. At the same time, we are talking about separation production — this is a high-tech process that involves many stages, requires resources, but eventually produces metals of the required degree of purity. The production of REM in the country can reduce the cost of final products — devices and equipment.
The technology of separation of rare earth elements by liquid extraction requires the greatest investments. It is used all over the world to produce individual metals of high purity. The production includes hundreds and even thousands of extraction stages, sophisticated chemical equipment, purification and automation systems. The construction of one modern separation complex can cost 50-150 billion rubles, depending on the capacity and product range.
It is also necessary to develop and implement modern processing technologies that will improve production efficiency, reduce energy and reagent costs, and increase the yield of finished products. An important area remains the financing of research and development work necessary to create new methods for extracting metals from ore, waste and electronic scrap.
Another major expense item is environmental infrastructure. Modern recycling complexes should be equipped with sewage treatment plants, waste management systems and closed water supply cycles. These goals usually account for 10-20% of the cost of the entire project.
For all areas
Rare and rare earth metals play an important role in almost all key high-tech industries. These include microelectronics, the nuclear industry, instrument engineering, and the military-industrial complex. These materials are used in the manufacture of equipment for energy, aviation and space technology, medical devices, communications equipment, robots and robotic systems.
The development of our own rare metals industry is necessary to achieve technological leadership, create new high-tech industries and increase the competitiveness of the Russian industry.
"Today, the main challenge and strategic task for the REM industry is to eliminate gaps in the deep processing chains. That is why the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is developing a Strategy for the development of the rare and rare earth metals industry in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2050," the Ministry of Industry and Trade told Izvestia.
One example of such projects is the Angara—Yenisei cluster of deep processing of non-ferrous, rare and rare-earth metals. The project involves the development of mining, processing, chemical and metallurgical processing plants, energy, infrastructure, scientific and technological base, as well as a digital circuit, the ministry noted.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
