Rare and rare earth metals are a strategic resource of the country. What support measures does this industry expect from the state? What key projects are being implemented? Does Russia have any chances to become a major player in the lithium market? We are talking about this with the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Rare and Rare Earth Metals, Advisor to the General Director of ARMZ Igor Demidov.
— What is happening in the industry of rare and rare earth metals today?
The industry is undergoing a revolution. In my opinion, just as oil and gas were drivers of economic growth in the XNUMXth century, so now rare and rare earth metals are becoming growth drivers for high-tech industries. The entire line of rare and rare earth metals is involved in green energy. For example, permanent magnets for generators and electric motors are made on the basis of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and the entire group of rare earth elements. In nuclear power, burnable additives in uranium fuel also consist of rare earth metals. Radio electronics, batteries, optics, X-rays, capacitors, communications and computers, catalysts, alloying additives for special alloys and materials with new consumer properties - all these are rare metals. Some metals, such as lithium, neodymium, praseodymium, titanium (and its alloys), are in high demand in industry and have a high potential for commercialization. Others — hafnium, erbium, rhenium, molybdenum — are less in demand in industry, but certain branches of the military-industrial complex and nuclear power cannot develop without them.
The state pays great attention to this direction. Rare and rare-earth metals were included in the development program for the Technology of New Materials and Substances direction. The goal is to achieve 2024% import independence by 50, and reach 2030% by 100.
Taxes and subsidies
— In addition to the development program, do you need any other support measures from the state?
— In 2020, the government changed the base rate of mineral extraction tax (MET) for the development of deposits of rare metals. Somewhere they simplified, and somewhere they even removed the regime of state secrets for a number of metals, thereby opening up the opportunity to attract foreign investors. And, perhaps most importantly, the Ministry of Natural Resources has approved a new methodology that allows you to reduce the initial payment when entering rare earth projects.
True, according to the MET for all metallurgists in 2022, a multiplying factor of 3,5 was introduced. Given that our industry is also partly metallurgical, we fell under this story. Therefore, when Rosatom signed a program for the development of technologies for new materials and substances with the government, we did a lot of work with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, discussing the possibility of reducing the MET for rare and rare earth metals. Taking into account the fact that there were practically no deposits of rare and rare-earth metals in development, we proposed zeroing or significantly reducing the MET in order to attract investors to this area. But the Ministry of Finance did not go for it. Their position is to consider each specific case separately.
Another important point is subsidies for infrastructure. Deposits are usually located in remote areas of the country. In particular, the lithium project that we are planning to develop is about 120 km of road from the nearest settlement to the deposit. If you lay an iron one, it turns out already 160 km. These are huge infrastructure costs. As soon as the cost of building a road and power lines starts to be imposed on the financial model, these infrastructure costs immediately worsen it. But the infrastructure also ensures the development of the territory. There will be new jobs, the flow of goods. We believe that state assistance is needed in this part. It should be noted that the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, the Ministry of the Far East and the Arctic, the Ministry of Natural Resources provide subsidies in the form of compensation for the costs incurred.
- What else?
- And the third important point: there is a product line in the industry - for example, beryllium, hafnium, germanium - that meets the needs of the military-industrial complex, Roskosmos. Often in quantitative terms, the volume of production of these metals is small, but they are critical. It is difficult to attract an investor to field development projects where there is no large industrial and market demand, but the metal is needed. Our proposal is to define at the state level a list of critical materials for which government orders will be issued. The Rosrezerv could act as the customer, and the Ministry of Finance could carry out direct financing.
lithium breakthrough
- What you have listed will be enough to ensure the development of the industry?
- The main thing that is needed for the growth of production and the raw material base is the presence of a consumer. It is necessary to stimulate demand by creating high-tech industries.
We are waiting for a more specific state order for the production of this or that raw material, because mining projects involve a long development period - five, seven, ten years. Without guaranteed demand, it will be difficult to implement them. It's like the story of the chicken and the egg. What comes first: to develop the raw material base, and then the industry that consumes this raw material, or vice versa?
Unfortunately, we have poorly developed industries that produce high-tech end products such as magnets, ceramics, optics, and electronics. Let's take lithium, which everyone needs today: two-thirds of the demand for this metal comes from batteries, energy storage devices. And recently we have seen a tremendous increase in the consumption of lithium around the world. Growth forecast for 2020-2030 is from 10 to 40 times!
In Russia, it is necessary and possible to create a complete chain of lithium production. There are huge deposits and raw materials in sufficient quantities - not only for Russian industry, but also for export. But so far there is no production in Russia. Until recently, we used imported raw materials, but now, due to the current situation, we have only Chinese suppliers left. At the same time, within the perimeter of the TVEL fuel company and several other private companies, there is the production of lithium hydroxide of battery quality, lithium metal, electrolyte, that is, all components. There is also production for storage batteries, it is only necessary to provide it with a raw material base.
We will apply for a license to develop the Kolmozerskoye lithium deposit in the Murmansk region. We created a joint venture Polar Lithium with Norilsk Nickel and applied for an auction to be held on February 14. The RENERA company within the perimeter of Rosatom began to produce its own batteries and energy storage devices, and this is a large market. It is important for us to form a full cycle for lithium in order to be absolutely independent of imports in terms of the production of energy storage devices. They are needed not only for electric vehicles. Accumulators have a huge potential for use in the development of the Arctic, in the development of space stations, for the military-industrial complex.
The village of Pervomaisky and the GOK at the Zavitinsky deposit, where lithium was mined during the Soviet era
— Where are the main sources of lithium? What extraction technologies are used?
— Lithium is mined from two main sources. The first is hydro-mineral raw materials from salt lakes, as in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, or from underground brines in associated oil and gas production. Such projects can be implemented in our country. For example, the Irkutsk Oil Company has already begun to master the technology of extracting lithium at its own oil fields, and Gazprom at the Kovykta gas field.
The second source is ore raw materials. The reserves of such ores are rich in China, Australia, Canada and Russia. There are different estimates of the current consumption of lithium in the world: from 200 to 400 thousand tons per year. According to all calculations, the hydromineral direction simply does not pull it out, so you need to deal with ore. Yes, the cost of ore mining is about 3–3,5 times higher. With the price of lithium in 2021 at the level of 12-14 thousand dollars per ton, the cost of mining hydromineral raw materials was about 2-3 thousand dollars, and ore - 6-8 thousand. But now we need to increase production. Yes, and lithium is no longer 10 thousand, but 70 thousand dollars per ton. At this price, the cost gap doesn't matter anymore.
— How much lithium can Russia produce?
- We know the plans for the extraction of lithium from hydromineral raw materials in Russia, they are at the level of 15 thousand tons per year. The project that we will be implementing with Norilsk Nickel will produce another 45 tons per year. But it should be noted that in the production of lithium from hydromineral raw materials, a complex sorption technology is used. It is necessary to prepare specially different sorbents for each aqueous medium, while the technologies for extracting lithium from ore raw materials were developed back in Soviet times at the Zavitinskoye deposit, which, by the way, was part of the structure of the atom industry.
- Still at Minsredmash?
- Yes. The plant closed in the 1980s or 1990s after the deposit was mined out, but the technology remained. They are known by the specialized institutes of Rosatom, Giredmet and VNIIKhT. We are in contact with them, and I think we have good prospects for developing this field.
Prospective projects
— What other projects in Russia would you single out?
— For example, there is a project on phosphogypsum, which involves the production of rare earth metals from waste from the production of mineral fertilizers. In fact, this is the processing of technogenic raw materials, which cost nothing and litter the plant site in Voskresensk.
In addition to the fact that we have millions of tons of minerals in the depths, we also have accumulated about 80 million tons of waste, which contain rare and rare-earth metals. We don't touch them. When foreigners come, the Japanese, for example, who value every square meter of land, they are amazed by this: “You are crazy. You have a mountain of phosphogypsum, and there is neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium for the production of magnets, and magnets are wind energy, electric vehicles ... "
Other enterprises spend a lot of money on blasting, extraction of raw materials in quarries - this eats up to 40% of the cost. And we have raw materials in the Moscow region, already crushed, crushed, prepared for production.
The phosphogypsum project is led by ARMZ. We have recently put into operation a separating production site and will create a joint venture with Uralchem, which will be engaged in the extraction of rare and rare earth metals and the production of gypsum building materials.
Another interesting project that we are running for Rosatom is the replacement of titanium-containing raw materials for the production of titanium sponge and titanium rolled products by VSMPO-AVISMA. Previously, they used Ukrainian raw materials, now access to it is closed. Accordingly, they go to raw materials from other countries. But we have Tugansky GOK, which we are developing with one private investor. GOK can replace not only titanium, but also imported zirconium raw materials, which are consumed by TVEL. The first stage of the project has been completed, we have started selling the first kilograms of feedstock from TVEL and VSMPO-AVISMA.
And finally, a large project that has yet to reach its final stage is the development of the Zashikhinsky field in the Irkutsk region. It will cover all the country's needs for niobium, tantalum and has a huge potential to enter the world market.
REFERENCE
Rare metals are a large group that includes lithium, beryllium, gallium, indium, germanium, vanadium, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, and rare earth metals. The rare earth metals include 15 elements from the lanthanide group, as well as yttrium and scandium. The name "rare earth" appeared at the end of the 1794th century: these elements were then considered relatively rare, and they form refractory, water-insoluble oxides, formerly called "earths". In XNUMX, the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin, examining ore samples found near the Swedish town of Ytterby, discovered a previously unknown "rare earth", which he called yttrium. The German scientist Martin Klaproth divided these samples into yttrium and cerium. Since then, light (cerium) and heavy (yttrium) groups of rare earth elements have been distinguished.
Without rare earth metals, the development of energy and resource-saving technologies, nuclear energy, space systems, medical equipment, the creation of promising types of weapons, military and special equipment, and the development of other priority areas of science and technology are practically impossible. Almost the entire range of rare-earth metals is involved in the production of lasers. Rare metals are used in the oil industry, for the manufacture of optical fibers and memory devices, batteries and fuel cells, solar panels, in the production of electric and hybrid cars, wind turbines.