Vietnam rare earth reserves estimated at 17M tons

Vietnam has estimated reserves of about 17 million tons of rare earth with the majority in the northern mountainous areas, an official of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said.

Up to 90% of Vietnam’s rare earth reserves are concentrated in Lai Chau province such as Bac Nam Xe, Nam Nam Xe and Dong Pao areas, Dr. Hoan Van Khoa at the ministry’s Geology and Minerals Department cited a survey conducted in 2008 as saying.

The neighboring provinces of Lao Cai and Yen Bai also have the deposit, he added.

Vietnam selected Japan as a long-term partner to survey, explore and tap rare earth in the Southeast Asian nation, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said after a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan on Oct 31 during the latter’s first visit to the former.

Under a memorandum of understanding on the issue signed on the same, Japan will provide technical and financial assistance, human resource training, and transfer technologies for Vietnam to conduct feasible studies on rare earth and safely mine the mineral, the cabinet leader added.

Japan is interested in tapping rare earth in Vietnam to diversify its supply sources after China has announced that it would cut rare earth export volumes to many nations, including Japan and the U.S. by 40%, spokesman of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Satoru Sato said in an interview with reporters of the state-run Tien Phong newspaper on Oct 29.

Tags: Vietnam rare earth reserves

Posted by VBN on Nov 5 2010. Filed under Mining & Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry