France's Echo: Western Countries Need Time and Investment to Change the Rare Earth Situation

After a meeting held recently in Toronto, Canada, the G7 energy ministers launched the "Critical Minerals Production Alliance."

The rotating chair of the G7, Canada, pointed out that the core objective of this strategy is to ensure the supply of rare earths, anticipate shortages, coordinate measures to counter China's deliberate market disruptions, and, where possible, develop the mining, processing, manufacturing, and recycling of these minerals.

The Echo analysis points out that the G7 is responding to and aims to "establish a transparent, fair, and sustainable critical mineral supply chain within the G7."

China mines and refines about 60% of the world's critical minerals, accounting for about 90% of the global total. The G7 hopes to build its own supply chain for rare earths and critical minerals.

The newspaper points out that the agreement reached this week between Washington and Beijing, in which China has decided to suspend certain restrictions on rare earth exports for at least one year, has eased the current tensions.

However, the newspaper analysis points out that establishing a rare earth supply chain is no easy task. One major challenge is that the processing and refining of these rare earth minerals take time. Chinese companies have made significant investments in research related to the refining of critical minerals. For example, from 2014 to 2023, China accounted for 36% of global cobalt refining patent applications, 69% of aluminum refining patent applications, and 79% of rare earth patent applications.

Changing the situation requires time and investment for the West.

Canadian Energy Minister admitted that increasing rare earth production is a challenging task. Building a complete system from mine to magnet and expanding the supply chain will take time, as well as require substantial investment.

Currently, the government led by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau has announced 25 new collaborative projects with a total investment of 870 million euros.

The United States welcomed the G7's joint actions aimed at countering China.

Source: rfi

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847682020812800/

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