A UK-based private equity firm said it has discovered the world's largest rare earth oxide deposit in North Korea.
Last month, the British company, SRE Mining Co., Ltd., announced its assessment of North Korea's rare earth oxide reserves. Most notably, the company claims that Dingzhou Mine contains 216 million tons of rare earth oxides, including light rare earth elements, heavy rare earth elements and rare earth minerals. According to a report by Voice of America, this will increase the current global rare earth oxide reserves by about two times. The US Geological Survey recently estimated that the global rare earth oxide reserves are 110 million tons.
Rare earth elements are used in many cutting-edge technologies, from cell phones to guided missiles. Although rare earth elements are not extremely rare, China controls more than 90% of the market because China's regulations are looser than Western countries in mining rare earths. From time to time, China has shown a tendency to use it in political disputes to seek advantages over other countries in the near-monopoly position of rare earth elements.
The outside world has long known that North Korea has considerable reserves of rare earths and other mineral deposits, but SRE Mining Co., Ltd. estimates are much higher than previously determined reserves. In theory, this discovery may break China's control of the rare earth market, because North Korea has more than six times the reserves of rare earths in China. In addition, mining rare earths in North Korea does not require consideration of environmental regulations and labor conditions as in developed countries.
Despite this, there are still major obstacles to suppressing expectations. The challenge now will be how to mine rare earths in North Korea and then ship them to foreign markets. In addition to the technical challenges involved, North Korea’s political environment has made it extremely difficult for foreign companies to work in the country, which has limited Pyongyang’s ability to exploit its vast mineral wealth over the past few decades.
When the results of the assessment were released last month, SRE Mining Co., Ltd. also revealed that the company has formed a joint venture with the North Korean Natural Resources Trading Company called Pacific Century Rare Earth Minerals Co., Ltd. to bring rare earths to market. The joint venture will be located in the British Virgin Islands, probably because SRE Mining Co., Ltd. is setting up regulations to evade sanctions.
Pacific Century has been awarded a 25-year contract to develop Dingzhou rare earth mines. The company is said to be planning to build a processing plant on top of the rare earth deposit. However, the North Korean regime has a long history of suddenly canceling long-term contracts with foreign companies, sometimes only for impulsive impulses, but sometimes because of the changes in the political relations between Pyongyang and the countries in which foreign companies belong.
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