Posted on 09/24/2023 9:22:03 PM PDT by cba123
HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam plans to restart its biggest rare-earths mine next year with a Western-backed project that could rival the world's largest, according to two companies involved, as part of a broader push to dent China's dominance in a sector that helps power advanced technologies.
The move would be a step toward the Southeast Asian country's aim of building up a rare-earths supply chain, including developing its capacity to refine ores into metals used in magnets for electric vehicles, smartphones and wind turbines.
As an initial step, Vietnam's government intends to launch tenders for multiple blocks of its Dong Pao mine before the year's end, said Tessa Kutscher, an executive at Australia's Blackstone Minerals Ltd, which plans to bid for at least one concession. She cited unpublished information from Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, which did not respond to requests for comment.
The auction's timing could change but the government plans to restart the mine next year, said Luu Anh Tuan, chairman of Vietnam Rare Earth JSC (VTRE), the country's main refiner and Blackstone's partner in the project.
The proposed restart of Dong Pao - whose timeline, scale and degree of foreign financial support have not been reported previously - comes as many nations fret about their vulnerability to supply disruptions due to China's stranglehold on strategic minerals and its disputes with the U.S. and its allies. Beijing this year imposed export curbs on minor metals used in semiconductors, which an influential Chinese policy adviser warned was "just a start".
(Please see full article, for the details)
Pretty long article
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
USA could easily produce this itself. Leftist Pols and enviros would rather we pay foreigners to do it.
Well hooray for Việt Nam and for the USA. Looks like tổng thống did something right for once. It is actually kind of amazing that he did not try to shut down mining in Việt Nam.
😎
Good news...for sure.
.
Goodbye Vietnam!
Yes, we have Mountain Pass, Ca.
But is was ruined by Enviros and cheap Chinese product (they intentionally priced it low originally to get rid of competition).
And now, it is owned by China anyway.
Looks like, even if we could mine it, there are no processing facilities, so the ore would have to be shipped to China!
What a screw up!
Screw up???
More than likely not!
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