The report of a huge deposit of rare earths in Norway made headlines at the beginning of June and fueled hopes that Europe could become less dependent on the quasi-monopolist China. While the development of Fen, as well as the Per Geijer deposit in Sweden, which came into focus a year and a half earlier, is likely to take many years, China is by no means inactive. On the contrary, the state-affiliated newspaper Global Times reported on Wednesday that a new deposit had also been discovered in the People’s Republic. At the site in the southwestern province of Yunnan, the raw materials are hidden in ion adsorption clays. These weathering residues are comparatively rich in heavy rare earths such as dysprosium. According to the researchers, these and two other newly discovered deposits amount to approximately one million tons of rare earth oxides.
Read more: China wants to upgrade its rare earth industry and exert more control.
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