Britain, France, and Germany Race for Rare Earths Mining in Pacific

Britain, France, and Germany are about to mine rare earths in the Pacific to resist the monopoly of China. Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential elements for high-tech industrial production, while most of them produced in China. When disputes arise in other countries, China often uses rare earth exports as a bargaining chip. The British ‘Times’ reported that many countries in Europe and Asia are studying the extraction of REEs from the Pacific seabed, describing it as the international ‘rare earth race’.

Rare earth is a collective term for 17 rare metals such as cerium, neodymium, and terbium. It is vital for the production of national defense and technological products such as fighter jets, wind turbines, and electronic vehicles. Hardware such as batteries, speakers, and computer hard drives must also be produced using REEs. It is crowned as "Industrial Gold". At present, 58.33% of the world's REEs are produced in China, and 95% of the REEs are smelted in China.

China tightens rules on rare earths amid global race image

Most of the REEs in the UK are imported from China. Once China reduces its export to the UK, the supply chain may be broken. Chris Williams, the managing director of Lockheed Martin's subsidiary in the British Seabed Resources Limited in the UK pointed out that there is a risk that China may use its position in the supply chain to put pressure on other countries, while the UK has not established a reliable system the rare metals. Alternative supply describes the fragility of the British defense supply chain.

Last month, the British government issued a comprehensive assessment report on defense, security and foreign policy. It mentioned that rare earths will be a hidden concern for British security. The UK needs to seek to obtain key materials from more sources and sign agreements with suppliers to ensure that even in a state of crisis.

The British government is currently funding the "British Seabed Resources" to study the exploitation of high-concentration REEs on the seabed in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists describe that even silt as large as a tennis court is enough to provide millions of tons of copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and even REEs. China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France and Belgium are also conducting similar studies.

rare earth metals are described as industrial gold image

A spokesperson for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom said that it will work hard to ensure that Britain's battery technology is leading the world. To this end, it will explore the self-mining and processing of rare earths.

 

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