Vietnam boosts rare earths output by tenfold - data

Australian Strategic Materials

05/05/2023 04:26

By Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu
       HANOI, May 5 (Reuters) - Vietnam's mined output of rare
earths soared tenfold last year, U.S. data showed, as global
firms have flocked to the Southeast Asian country with the
world's second largest estimated deposits to reduce reliance on
China for the key industrial metals.
    Past attempts to build up Vietnam's rare earth industry have
stuttered due to falling prices and regulatory hurdles, but
growing sales of electric vehicles (EVs) and firms' efforts to 
diversify their suppliers has revived interest in Vietnam.
    Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASM)  ASM.AX  said on
Monday that it would buy 100 tonnes of rare earth oxides this
year from Vietnam Rare Earth Co and is looking for a longer term
supply agreement.
    ASM said a longer-term agreement with the Vietnamese firm,
which is ultimately owned by China's government, would provide
it with a multi-source feedstock option and additional supply
security for its processing plant in South Korea.    
    Rare earths are a group of elements that have applications
in electronics manufacturing and batteries, making them
important for the global transition towards cleaner sources of
energy and in defence.
    Vietnam's rare earth mine production jumped to 4,300 tonnes
last year from 400 tonnes in 2021, according to the United
States Geological Survey (USGS), a government agency.
    Its output is a tiny fraction of the amount top producers
mined last year. China, the world's biggest producer, mined
210,000 tonnes in 2022, the United States 43,000 tonnes and
Australia 18,000 tonnes.
    But Vietnam's estimated reserves of 22 million tonnes are
half of China's and larger than any other country, according to
USGS. Its output growth last year, which turned it into the
world's sixth biggest producer up from 10th in 2021, may signal
a turning point in the exploitation of its resources.
    It was also the only major Southeast Asian producer to boost
output last year, with its larger regional competitors Myanmar
and Thailand reporting lower production, USGS data showed.
    The main beneficiary of the increased production in Vietnam
appears to be China, the world's largest auto and EV market and
also a major global manufacturing hub for electronic goods such
as smartphones.
    China's customs data show a doubling of imports from Vietnam
of rare earth elements (REEs) and other concentrates that
usually contain the strategic metals to nearly 12,000 tonnes
last year.
    What quantity of the imports were processed rare earths and
unprocessed ores was unclear.
    Vietnam also imports rare earths for processing and
re-exporting.
    Vietnam's "REE-processing infrastructure is rather advanced,
and does process not only domestic REE-resources," Per Kalvig, a
researcher at Denmark's Center for Minerals and Materials
(MiMa), said.
    He said Vietnam was one of the world's biggest importers of
raw rare earths compounds in 2021.
    Vietnam's industry ministry and Vietnam Rare Earth did not
reply to requests for comment.

 (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; additional
reporting by Khanh Vu, Melanie Burton and Dominique Patton;
Editing by Miyoung Kim & Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((Francesco.Guarascio@thomsonreuters.com;))