【Overseas】South Korea and the United States launch joint rare earth project in Vietnam

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea recently announced that South Korea and the United States have initiated a joint research project on the extraction of rare earth elements in Vietnam, as part of their efforts to strengthen cooperation in the supply chain of key minerals.

The U.S. Embassy's Science Researcher Program will deploy researchers and geological experts to Hanoi from October for a three-month project on extracting rare earth and key elements from coal ash. Vietnam, with the world's second-largest rare earth reserve after China, totaling around 22 million mt (19% of global reserves), is seen as a potential future supplier. The medium to large scale mines are mostly in northwestern provinces like Lao Cai, An Phu, and Lai Chau. Currently, Vietnam lacks the technology to process rare earths and manufacture nickel hydro-metallurgy products or separate rare earth oxides to meet domestic and global demands.