Uzbekistan

USGS lists no rare-earth production or reserves for Uzbekistan. The country matters to the rare-earth sector as a source of other critical metals and as a possible byproduct producer. Its central enterprise for critical raw materials, the Uzbekistan Technological Metals Complex (TMK), is based in Chirchik in the Tashkent region.

TMK works mainly in tungsten and molybdenum. The presidency has said new deposits and processing plants could bring other critical minerals into industrial production.

The rare-earth angle runs through uranium. Uzbek uranium has long been produced by in-situ leaching, with resources concentrated in the sandstones of the Central Kyzylkum. USGS, citing local reports, has described rare earth elements as a possible uranium byproduct, with rhenium recovered at several deposits and rare earths not extracted.

When the uranium business was separated from the Navoi mining combine, USGS reported, the new state enterprise Navoiyuran was given a mandate to produce uranium and rare earths.

Vocabulary needs care here. English-language material on TMK's website has described tungsten and molybdenum as rare earth elements, which they are not. A claim of Uzbek rare-earth output carries weight once it names the element and the deposit it comes from.