{"id":1688,"date":"2019-12-05T05:49:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T05:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beachminerals.org\/?p=1642"},"modified":"2021-09-23T15:08:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T09:38:18","slug":"potentials-for-rare-earth-elements-industrial-cooperation-in-the-eurasian-economic-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beachmineral.com\/ta\/potentials-for-rare-earth-elements-industrial-cooperation-in-the-eurasian-economic-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Potentials for Rare Earth Elements Industrial Cooperation in the Eurasian Economic Union"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Potentials for Rare Earth Elements Industrial Cooperation in the Eurasian Economic Union<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

_ Yuri Kofner, Head, Eurasian Sector, Centre for Comprehensive International and European Studies, Higher School of Economics. Moscow, December 21, 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

The strategic importance of rare earths<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most important types of strategic raw materials that ensure the development of modern high-tech is rare earth elements (REE). Today, rare earth elements are needed for such high-tech civilian and defense industries, such as aerospace, the nuclear industry, and radio electronics.<\/p>\n

Rare earth elements (REE) are a group of seventeen metallic elements: fifteen lanthanides with the atomic numbers from 57 (lanthanum, La) to 71 (lutetium, Lu), together with yttrium (Y, atomic number 39) and scandium (Sc, atomic number 21). They all share similar chemical properties. Elements with a lower atomic weight from lanthanum to samarium (Sm) with atomic numbers from 57 to 62 are called light rare-earth elements (LREE); while europium (Eu) in lutetium with atomic numbers from 63 to 71 are heavy rare earth elements (HREE).<\/p>\n

The modern smartphone cannot work without a number of rare earth metals, such as yttrium, lanthanum, terbium, neodymium, gadolinium, and praseodymium.<\/p>\n

In fact, REEs are abundantly present in the earth\u2019s crust. However, they are extremely difficult and costly to extract from rocks and minerals (sometimes referred to as called \u201cchemical connectivity\u201d). Yet, the numerous practical applications of rare earth elements often depend on the physical properties (electrical, magnetic, spectroscopic and thermal), which are characteristic of specific rare earth elements only. Thus, the main production task and the difficulty is their separation.<\/p>\n

One of the main health and environmental problems is the fact that rare earths are often mined together with radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium. In addition, extracting and concentrating REEs requires large amounts of electricity of toxic chemicals.<\/p>\n

The global market<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world market for rare earth elements is characterized, on the one hand, by rapid growth in demand from high-tech industries, and the monopolization of rare earth supply, on the other hand. For this reason, we are seeing an intensive increase in prices for rare earths. For example, the world price of cerium oxide in July 2011 was 38 times higher than its average price in 2009 [1]. And it is likely that this trend will only increase.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact is that over 90% of the world\u2019s rare earth elements are produced in the Peoples\u2019 Republic of China, and in 2013, Chinese companies controlled 42% of their global reserves [2]. Now it has risen to over 50% [5]. Against the background of the US\u2019 protectionist policies, there is the possibility of China taking retaliatory measures by further reducing export quotas for rare earth metals. This, in turn, will drive up the commodity price for them on the global market.<\/p>\n

Dependence on China<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the economic and military-political partnership of Russia and the other EAEU member states, being dependant on the supply of critical rare earth elements from China is an impermissible threat to the military, economic and technological security of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Russia\u2019s REE production amounted to about 2 thousand tons (2% of world production) [3]. Producing only raw materials, Moscow subsequently had to rely on processing the mined product outside of the Russian Federation. Without the implementation of new projects, the country\u2019s share in the global volume of REE production has already fallen below 1.5%. According to the Rostec State Corporation, by 2020 Russian demand for rare earth elements will reach 5-7 thousand tons per year, according to a more optimistic scenario \u2013 almost 13 thousand tons [4]. Yet domestic demand is almost completely satisfied by imports from China.<\/p>\n

China has the largest reserves of rare earth elements in the world \u2013 55 million tons, or 50% of all explored world reserves. Russia is in second place with 19 million tons (17% of the world\u2019s reserves). The United States accounts for 13 million tons or 12% of the world\u2019s reserves [5].<\/p>\n

The European experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2013, the European Union launched the EURARE project [6] in order to make the European rare earth industry more independent (from China) by searching for ways to supply both raw materials and rare earth alloys from within the EU and other regions of the world [7].<\/p>\n

Achievement of this goal is so important to the EU\u2019s policymakers that in June 2018 as part of the \u201cHorizon 2020\u201d innovation program, the European Commission launched the tender \u201cSecuring European Critical Rare Earth Metals\u201d (SecREEts) with a total value of over 17 million euros. By 2023 the project aims to secure no less than 3000 tons of rare earth elements annually for the needs of the European industry with an estimated generated worth of 75 million euros [8].<\/p>\n

It is also worth noting that as part of the \u201cLisbon Strategy\u201d the European Commission in the late 1990s \u2013 early 2000s created \u201cEuropean Research Area\u201d, which became the basis for the \u201cEuropean technological platforms\u201d (ETPs). ETPs are platforms created on a mutual basis by combining the intellectual and financial resources of the EU and of the largest European industrial producers, where a strategy for the development of science and technology is being developed, which then forms the basis of specific research programs and projects. Their final goal is the successful sale, through industrial and research cooperation, of value-added products on the European and world market [9].<\/p>\n

Eurasian industrial cooperation in the field of rare earths<\/strong><\/p>\n

Against this background, there is an urgent need to solve the problem of recreating the entire technological chain of rare earth industries in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) \u2013 from the extraction and enrichment of raw materials to chemical-metallurgical processing, production of rare earth metals, individual rare earths, and finished products. All of this has to be done in a competitive environment and without a substantial domestic market.<\/p>\n

Due to the importance of rare earth elements for the needs of high-tech industries and the military-industrial complex of the EAEU member states, the formation of a complete technological cycle of the industry of rare earth metals is a strategic area of economic cooperation of the countries belonging to the Eurasian Economic Union.<\/p>\n

In 2016, following the EU\u2019s example, the Eurasian Economic Commission decided to introduce 14 so-called\u00a0 Eurasian technological platforms (EATPs) aimed at industrial and research cooperation, the creation of competence centers in the member states, shaping the economy of the future, constant technological innovation, and enhancing the global competitiveness of the Eurasian Union\u2019s industrial potential.<\/p>\n

We propose the creation of the Eurasian technological sub-platform \u201cRare Earth Elements\u201d (EATP \u201cREE\u201d) as part of the EATP \u201cTechnologies for the extraction and processing of solid minerals\u201d. It is noteworthy that one of its declared activities is \u201cmining and deep processing of rare earth ores\u201d [11].<\/p>\n

The objectives of the Eurasian technological sub-platform \u201cRare Earth Elements\u201d could be:<\/p>\n