Russia and Japan are planning to increase production of rare earth metals
Russia plans
to increase production of rare earth metals. This reporter learned from
the authorities have shared the information with members of the media during
recent working visit to Murmansk Deputy Prime Minister Arkady
Dvorkovich, who met with the first Deputy Governor of the Murmansk region
— Aleksey Tukavin. At the business event, the parties discussed the problems
licensing Afrikanskogo Deposit the perovskite titanium-magnetite ore (located
in the village of Afrikanda Polyarizovannogo district) containing titanium, rare, and
rare-earth metals.
Approval
experts, development of reserves of rare earth metals on the Kola Peninsula is now one
of the most profitable areas of mining in
In Murmansk region. As follows from the statements of experts the Academy of natural Sciences in the region
there is a unique potential for significant growth in the production of this resource in the
view of the fact that there are more than 70% of all proven Russian
deposits of rare earth metals.
According to Alexey
Rukavina, Afrikanska field is expected not only to produce
concentrate expensive elements: the administration plans to organize here
production process full cycle — from mining to processing. «It
the company will become an integral part of the chemical engineering cluster
region, the development of which is now being developed by the experts of the Kola
scientific centre of the RAS» — said at the meeting with media representatives Deputy
the Governor of the Murmansk region.
In turn,
Japan also plans to reduce its dependence on rare earth
metals foreign production. Recently (according to the press center of the Ministry
of economy, trade and industry of the state) the country has received approval from
the international community in the issue on your own
prospecting works on search of deposits of rare earth metals at the site of the Pacific
of the seabed. «International Seabed Authority» (international body
controlling the underwater extraction of resources) has adopted a positive decision
at the appropriate request of the Japanese government. Now the geologists of the country
will be able to conduct exploration work on an area of about 3 thousand
square kilometres near the island of Minamitorishima (the licence will be valid for
for fifteen years).
The above described parcel
is about two thousand kilometers South-East of Tokyo. As
the statement of the official representatives of the Japanese government,
the results of preliminary exploration in this place that in several
hundreds of kilometers from the island of Minamitorishima there are significant reserves
the rare earth metals.