TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Secure REE supply chain to meet net zero goals
As demand for rare earth elements grow exponentially in the global drive to achieve net zero, it will become increasingly necessary to seek sources beyond China's industry dominance to secure the supply chain.
Change Size
Heavy machines operate on Jan. 30, 2020 at MP Materials Corp.’s Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine, the United States’ largest rare earth elements mine, located just south of the Clark Mountain Range in San Bernardino county, California. (Reuters/Steve Marcus)
A
ll countries are committed to pursuing pathways to decarbonizing emissions by 2050 amid concerns raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the serious consequences of global climate change.
The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, set the goals to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels” and to pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels”.
Pursuing net zero emissions requires political commitment to drive policies in all energy-related sectors to transform business-as-usual energy infrastructure into clean and sustainable energy infrastructure, with clean fuels and renewables playing key roles.
Scaling up all clean and renewable technologies and production requires a massive amount of rare earth minerals, also called rare earth elements (REE), as critical inputs of production for all clean technologies and renewables, such as wind turbines, battery storage and electric vehicle batteries, electrolyzers and all smart technologies used in smart grids and telecommunications. REE are also used in the production of military weapons.
To meet the net zero emission scenario, demand for critical minerals is estimated to grow around sixfold from 7.1 megatonnes (Mt) in 2020 to 42.3 Mt in 2050. This jump in demand has raised concerns over energy security in global sourcing in the supply chain, dominated by China (International Energy Agency, 2022).
China is the biggest global rare earth player in terms of REE mine production and reserves, with 140,000 tonnes of annual mine production and 44 million tonnes in reserves, representing around 35 percent of global reserves. The United States is the second biggest, after it reopened REE mining in 2018 and gradually increased production to 38,000 tonnes in 2021, with 1.5 million tonnes in reserves. Australia ranks third, with annual production of 17,000 tonnes and around 4.1 Mt in reserves.
Vietnam and Brazil respectively have the second and third highest reserves with 22 million tonnes and 21 million tonnes, but their mine production is among the lowest at only 1,000 tonnes per year each (US Geological Survey, 2022).
