Report urges US to step up push for big share of Central Asia’s rare earths prize

US officials working to break China's near-monopoly on the production of rare earth elements (REEs) should engage with the governments of Central Asia to develop high concentrations of REE resources found in the region, according to a report by the US-based International Tax and Investment Center.

Failure to do so, it says, could present China with a "decisive advantage" in the sector, crucial to the green energy revolution and numerous cutting-edge technologies, including some of the latest weapons systems.

"As the uses for these minerals has expanded, so too has global competition for them in a time of sharply increasing geostrategic and geo-economic tension," the report said. "Advanced economies with secure, reliable access to REEs enjoy economic advantages in manufacturing, and corresponding economic disadvantages accrue for those without this access."

REEs—which have unique magnetic, heat-resistant and phosphorescent properties—are found in substantial volumes in the Kazakh steppe and uplands as well as in the Tien Shan mountains across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan, according to experts. Estimations of Central Asia’s REE potential, as with Mongolia, are often quite indistinct, but the accumulation of evidence points to the existence of highly significant resources.

Monazite, zircon, apatite, xenotime, pyrochlore, allanite and columbite are among Central Asia's most abundant rare metals and minerals, analysts say. Only last week, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon was in Qatar talking to investors about the merits of his country’s natural resources, including REEs and lithium.

In 2016, the US Geological Survey listed 384 REE occurrences in Central Asia: 160 in Kazakhstan, 87 in Uzbekistan, 75 in Kyrgyzstan, 60 in Tajikistan and two in Turkmenistan.

Kazakhstan, additionally, also holds the world's largest chromium reserves and second-largest uranium reserves.

Report co-author Ariel Cohen has made the case that it is the governments of Central Asia who need to create the investment climate for the development of the resources.

"They may be the next big thing in Central Asia as the engine of economic growth," Cohen said last week during a panel discussion at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, VoA reported.

The news service also reported views of Wesley Hill, another expert on Central Asia's mineral reserves, who noted that rare earths production at present "is almost wholly monopolised by China."

"Depending on how you count, between 80 to 90% of REE refining is controlled by China and done directly inside of China," Hill observed. However, he was cited as contending that China, while heavily involved in Central Asia, has yet to fully take over the region's rare earth sector. "So, this means that Central Asia is very much at a crossroads,” he was further reported as saying, adding: “Central Asia has the opportunity to expand its REE production without being wholly dependent on China."

Cohen was reported as concluding that the Central Asian countries cannot wait long to develop their rare earths. "There is a competition, and the African countries, Latin American countries and others will compete increasingly," he said.

The report cautions that while China has not yet attempted to exploit REEs in Central Asia due to the sufficiency so far of its own voluminous resources, "the massive size of the Chinese economy and the Chinese Communist Party's conscious efforts to dominate the REE sector globally mean such increases [in exploiting REEs that will take in Central Asian resources] are a matter of time."

Credit: fossil.energy.gov, US Dept of Energy