2023-05-21 03:04:02
Rare earths are the new oil. Saudi Arabia knows this well, which has prioritized the extraction of the dust in which 19 basic chemical elements are found for technology, since it has a quarter of the world’s reserves of tantalum and niobium.
The geostrategic disputes to secure their reserves are behind many political movements, from the clashes between the United States and China, the main global supplierto the tensions between Morocco and Spain, which are facing each other over Mount Tropic, in waters close to the Canary Islands and in which there is a megayacimiento de tellurium.
Very close, the Sahara, which accumulates the world’s largest reserves of phosphateseasy to extract and key to the fertilizer industry, thanks to which the more than 8,000 million people in the world are fed.
But why are rare earths strategic? To begin with, the entire European climate neutrality policy in 2050 pivots, by replacing dependence on oil, on achieving supplies of critical raw materials, in addition to their recycling, such as solar panels, which are highly polluting.
Rare earths are a reason for national security because the technological revolution and the energy transition are based on them. Contained in minerals, these 19 elements are crucial for the entire industry.
Los lanthanides are used in the manufacture of hybrid cars, mobile phones, batteriescomputers, digital cameras, fluorescent tubes, wind turbines, solar panels, refracting telescopes or very powerful magnets, among other uses.
Other lands, associated with radioactive elements, are integrated into the manufacturing process of nuclear reactors and bombs. Americium, for example, is used for smoke detectors. and devices to prevent pollution. They also have military applications and are used to manufacture night vision goggles, laser beams, communication devices, GPS, and precision weapons.
China corners the market
However, to achieve the energy transition by mid-century, it would be necessary to multiply by twelve the current production of rare earths, according to a study carried out by the Government of the Netherlands. China only has 37% of world reserves, but it monopolizes global production with 132,000 tons in 2019 for the 26,000 tons of the US, the 22,000 of Burma or the 20,000 of Australia. Thus, the entire European green transition passes through China unless the EU diversifies its supplies and extracts that land. And that is where Spain plays a key role.
The data collected by the Mining Geological Institute are clear: Spain has important deposits of strategic minerals that will be highly demanded and that could constitute a balloon of oxygen for the emptied Spain. In Orense, there are very valuable deposits of coltan; in Cáceres there are lithium ones; Rare earths abound in Ciudad Real and the world’s largest deposit of tellurium accumulates on the seabed of the Canary Islands.
The Strategic Framework for Energy and Climate reflects Spain’s aspiration to position itself as a leader in energy and clean technologies. The National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 aims to promote research and innovation in these fields, through actions that provide information on the reserves of raw materials in Spain and their future demand based on technological needs (Spain, 2020). . The guidelines for a long-term strategy will follow all the canons set by the EU.
According to the criteria of the National Confederation of Mining and Metallurgy Entrepreneurs, if mining resources were to be exploited, Spain would be the second largest producer of rare earths in the EU, after Finland. In Campo de Montiel, Torrenueva and Torre de Juan Abad, all of them in Ciudad Real, there are monazite deposits that contain rare earths.
There are not many of this type in the world. In fact, it would be the only area in Europe with capacity to supply a third of the EU’s needs. It would be about 20,000 tons of oxide, plus another 10,000 probable, extracted from an area of 234 hectares.
The problem with its extraction is that the concentration index is not known, which would not make it profitable to obtain it due to the amount of land that would have to be removed. To this is added the environmental impact, given that the extraction area is located in a place where there are olive crops, hunting grounds, pastures and agricultural land; in addition to animal species, among others, the Iberian lynx, the imperial eagle and the royal kite, all of them in danger of extinction.
However, the economic benefit that it would bring to a region with high unemployment rates plays in its favor. This exploitation would imply the creation of about 600 jobs. The company Quantum Minería, responsible for the discovery, would be in charge of starting up the Matamulas Project and its exploitation.
At the moment it is still stopped due to the refusal of the City Council, considering it incompatible with the conservation of biodiversity. For its part, the mining company argues that the reports on which the environmental platforms opposed to its activation have been based precisely come from Russian and Chinese experts, who would not be interested in this competition.
This does not prevent us from recognizing the dangers that this activity entails, since along with ETR (rare earths), other radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium are normally extracted. In any case, the engineers defend its viability because to avoid this damage, modern and sustainable extraction formulas would be applied. The controversy is served before a critical mineral of urgent use.
Tropic: the volcano of discord
And then there’s Tropic. This mountain sits on the seabed of the Canary Islands, a submarine volcano whose top is 1,000 meters deep Where is the tellurium deposit located?
In addition to the 2,670 tons that its exploitation would provide, it would also be a source for an average of 234 kilos of iron, 169 of manganese, 5 of cobalt, 3 of vanadium, 3.5 of rare earths (yttrium) and 182 grams of platinum. Comparison with the average presence of these elements in the continental crust reveals that in the ferromanganese crusts of these seamounts there are 365 times more platinum, 290 times more cobalt, 24 times more vanadium, 59 times more nickel or 10 times more rare earths. .
Spain has spent years studying the funds of this underwater treasure island to document the lawsuit that he filed in 2014 before the UN. The objective, to extend the continental shelf of the Canary Islands from the current 200 miles to 350which would add to its jurisdiction almost 300,000 square kilometers of ocean, an area equivalent to the whole of Italy.
Since 2017, Morocco has launched the expansion of its economic zone exclusive, including in it Spanish waters attached to the Canary Islands and the platform of the former Western Sahara.
Morocco estimates that it has in its territory seven of the 24 minerals and metals considered strategic and critical for the technological, military and food industry, according to what was indicated on March 29 by the public body Moroccan Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE). Among them are cobalt and phosphates. In the Moroccan report mentions Mount Tropic precisely, which, according to Rabat, has “great potential” for iron, magnesium, cobalt and tellurium.
Moroccan mining production stood at 40.5 million tons in 2021, most of it (38.1 million) is phosphates, a product in which Morocco is the world leader. The report also indicates that Rabat is among the first African producers of silver, barite and cobalt. “With the exception of phosphates, of which Morocco has very large reserves, the deposits of the rest of the minerals, exploited or in the process of being exploited, are quite small,” the EESC document states. The Moroccan mining sector contributes 10% to the Moroccan gross domestic product (GDP) and with a 26% to exports of the country, and employs 50,000 people.
Morocco registers the Sahara strip in the reserves, rich in rare earths associated with much more concentrated phosphates and easier to extract than the Moroccan ones. The largest accumulation of these minerals is located in Western Sahara. Morocco produces 240 million tons of phosphates each year, 70% of the world total. Associated with these rock formations is uranium 238, which the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated, in 2016, at about 6.9 million tons. Very scarce rare earths such as promethium, cerium, lanthanum and yttrium are obtained from its decomposition, according to the report “The Geopolitical Impact of Rare Earths in the International Order”, by the researcher Maria Dolores Algorafrom the Center for International Security of the Francisco de Victoria University.
Phosphates are irreplaceable for fertilizers. The rest of the elements that are in the Sahara, in addition to being useful for nuclear reactors, are very valuable for their multiple industrial applications in the manufacture of medical devices, domestic use, research and energy production.
Behind american plan by which Donald Trump recognized at the end of 2020 the Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara, there are the tensions between the United States and China due to the North American dependence on Chinese rare earths, which has led Washington to promote new alliances in Africa, where a large part of the control of these critical resources over which China exercises a monopoly is disputed. . Not surprisingly, China is Africa’s main creditor.
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