Last week, the European Union and Kazakhstan concluded a strategic partnership on raw materials, batteries and green hydrogen (we reported). Yesterday, Thursday, in Brussels, it was specified what this could mean in terms of the supply of strategic raw materials in the EU. Of the 30 minerals classified as critical, his country can currently supply 16, news portal Euractiv quotes Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Marat Karabayev as saying. The remaining fourteen are also available, he said, but are either not mined or not yet quantified. The U.S. Geological Survey (PDF) identifies 160 rare earth deposits in the vast country alone. Other countries in the region, such as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, also have a large number of deposits of this commodity group.
Photo: iStock/freedarst
