Kazakhstan and rare earth metals: new oil?

Tengrinews.kz - There is an opinion: "whoever owns rare earth metals will own the whole world." And Kazakhstan, according to various estimates, is among the countries with the largest reserves of rare earth elements. To what extent is this information true and can rare earths become "the new oil" for us?

How many rare earth deposits are there in the country

According to the Ministry of Industry and Construction, there are currently 15 rare earth metal deposits in Kazakhstan, 11 of which are in subsoil use, including Melovoe, Tomak, Taibogar, Tasmuryn, Kundybai, Akbulakskoe, Dzhamchi, Moinkum, Inkai, Akdala, Kanzhugan, Mynkuduk and Budenovskoe

"However, in uranium deposits, which make up the bulk of the reserves, the extraction of associated components is usually not carried out, since the technology and economics of development are determined by the main component," the department reported in response to an official request from Tengrinews.kz.

Who mines rare earth

As Ministry of Industry and Construction noted, the following companies are working at the above-mentioned deposits: JSC Kundybai Mining, JSC Araltuz, JV LLP Katko, JSC NAC Kazatomprom, LLP Appak, LLP Karatau, LLP Sareco.

This year, as part of the state geological study of the subsoil, exploration work continues at 12 sites promising for rare and rare earth metals

"The work was started in 2022, and it is planned to complete 11 sites this year and one (started in 2023) - in 2025. Information on the results will be formed upon completion of this work at the end of this year. Also this year, work began on the predictive assessment of granitoids in collision zones of Eastern Kazakhstan for rare metal-rare earth mineralization and the study of the territory of Central Kalba to identify areas that are promising for lithium and rare metal and rare earth mineralization of the Kalba-Narym zone," the ministry said.

The department also reported that within the framework of the Comprehensive Development Plan for the Rare and Rare Earth Metals Industry for 2024-2028, it is planned to analyze the potential within the Bayankol area, the Aral and Caspian regions for lithium exploration in mineralized brines, lakes and salt marshes.

The General Director of the National Center for Integrated Processing of Mineral Raw Materials, Professor, Academician of the National Academy of Science Abdurasul Zharmenov told some details about rare earths in Kazakhstan.

"There is no production of rare earth elements in Kazakhstan today. It used to be: the Irtysh Chemical and Metallurgical Plant operated in Ust-Kamenogorsk, which was quite secret in Soviet times, where these 14 elements were separated from each other. It was a very complex production, but we did not have other production of rare earth elements. Today, neither one nor the other production is working, they are closed," Zharmenov said.

He also explained why this situation has arisen.

"Because at this plant, the raw material for separation during processing of phosphorite ores was obtained from Russia, from the Kola Peninsula. Along the way, they received this concentrate of rare earth elements and sent it to Kazakhstan for separation. Since Russia no longer sends it, today there are no developed deposits of rare earth elements in Kazakhstan. Rare earth elements are present in ores, but they are not being developed today," said the general director of the national center.

According to Abdurasul Zharmenov, there are prospects for the development of this industry in Kazakhstan. However, the quality of our rare earth metal ores, as it turned out, leaves much to be desired.

"For comparison: China has 90% of these rare earth metals and produces them today. It is important to note why these rare earth ores are not developed in Kazakhstan: their quality is 10 times worse than Chinese ones. That is, the ore itself is poor, and not 2-3% poorer, but almost 10 times poorer. Although they were discovered 70 years ago, we do not have economically feasible technologies for their processing today. I can say that now we have a technology that helps our ore become competitive along with Chinese ores. However, this has not been announced yet," Zharmenov said.

Which regions are rich in rare earth metals

"Kostanay and Kyzylorda Regions. I won't name Zhambyl yet, because it is even poorer. But these two regions can be considered production facilities. Moreover, Kyzylorda Region is more prepared, because some production capacities have already been created there for these purposes," the academician of the National Academy of Science said.

According to him, these deposits have been operating for several years, but there are certain problems with the technologies that make this process profitable.

"We have come up with these technologies, but we haven't even disclosed them to the producers yet - when we agree on the terms on which we will work with them, we will probably name them and distribute them," Abdurasul Zharmenov added.

Who owns rare earth deposits

"As far as I know, some deposits in the Kyzylorda Region are owned by English companies. And at the Kostanay deposits, the owners were mainly our Kazakh oligarchs, but they were never able to process the raw materials because there was no technology. Including at one time they worked with us, but we, to be honest, were not able to create a profitable technology. Only in the last year we managed to successfully enter fundamentally new technologies. And today we can offer them to the owners of the deposits," Zharmenov said.

How much money is needed to extract rare earth

As the interlocutor of Tengrinews.kz explained, the main investments are needed to extract rare earth. The process itself is not much different from copper or gold mining.

"In general, metallurgy is a capital-intensive industry. You can't do it for 20-30 million investments. You need funds from 100 million to 1 billion dollars. But this is not the difference with rare earth metals, these are any metallurgical deposits. Because sometimes mining has to be done at depth, sometimes by the mine method, and these are all capital costs. In principle, we don't need mines to mine our rare earth metals, we will have open-pit mining: both there and here. Therefore, significantly less funds are needed, these ores are quite close to the surface," Zharmenov explained.

Speaking about investors, he said that Canadian companies had previously shown great interest in the deposits, but they owned the same deposits in China.

"We never got along because we didn't come up with competitive technologies. It was about 10 years ago, and against that backdrop they went to China. Now, with new technology, we may be able to approach them again. We are ready to negotiate with investors. But first we need to contact our government agencies to understand who owns the deposits and start negotiations with them. Today we don't even have this information," Zharmenov promised.

Reserves and Prospects

"We will most likely never be the largest suppliers of rare earth metals. Because our reserves are quite small. Plus the quality of the ore - only good technology will allow us to reach the level of competition with foreign companies with our rare earth metals," said the general director of the national center.

Zharmenov is optimistic about the development prospects of this industry. At the same time, he talks about certain limits.

"At least, this can become a fairly large niche for us. We may not be comparable with China in terms of production volumes, but nevertheless, for our economy, this can be a fairly solid increase. But on a global scale, of course, we will not be large suppliers," he noted.

He also believes that the extraction of rare earths will not remain a relevant topic for long.

"Because materials change: at one time, rare earth metals were in demand in Europe, today - gadolinium. Science does not stand still, substitutes are found. The same lithium is now being replaced by sodium in billions of tons. If some element creates a monopoly, science will definitely find another material that can replace it. Therefore, no one will allow the owners of rare earth deposits to "own the world," he noted.

Permission for foreigners to mine rare earths: how to protect the interests of the country

Interlocutor believes that in order to protect Kazakhstan's interests, it is first necessary to introduce a ban on the export of concentrates and the processing of our ores to the final product.

"The first stage is to obtain concentrate, the second stage is to obtain metal. And if we establish such relationships with investors that they will do the fifth and sixth processing in Kazakhstan, then this is the most basic, the greatest protection for our economy," Zharmenov emphasized.

To implement this, amendments to the legislation and a corresponding position of our government agencies in negotiations with foreign investors will be required.

The geologist's specialty is becoming different

Considering the diversity of minerals that nature has gifted our country with, Zharmenov is confident that the geologist's profession will always be relevant. But it will become a little different.

"In principle, today we use the achievements of geologists of the 50-60s, maybe 70s. We go into our subsoil a maximum of a kilometer. When I was in Canada, I visited a deposit at a depth of three kilometers. And it went even deeper into the ground... Now geologists do not need to walk across the steppe, there are appropriate space technologies for probing, other methods. This specialty is becoming a little different," he noted.

Demand for uranium remains at a good level

As our interlocutor notes, unlike rare earth, uranium ore in Kazakhstan is by no means poor. Moreover, as is known, Kazakhstan ranks second in the world in uranium reserves. We inquired: is it realistic to increase uranium mining and production.

"If necessary, Kazakhstan has the ability to increase uranium mining. So far, this is not required. This is also a competitive market, and, most likely, demand is not growing there. But demand remains at a fairly good level," he specified.

According to Zharmenov, about five years ago Kazakhstan had problems with the sale of uranium.

"Today, I think, we do not have these problems. We practically cover the need. Uranium is needed mainly by those countries that have nuclear power plants. There are quite a lot of them, I will not name the exact number," the academician concluded.