Report: Australia to Mine Waste to Generate Rare Earth Elements to Counter Chinese Mineral Restrictions

Highlights

• Australia investigates extracting rare earth metals from mining waste to reduce reliance on China’s supply.
• CSIRO leads efforts to recycle gallium and germanium from alumina and zinc refining processes.
• Shifting market dynamics and China’s export controls drive Australia’s push for rare earth element production.

The quest to diversity rare earth metal sources to mitigate risk from China ensues.  Reports from Nikkei Asia (opens in a new tab) are that

Australian scientists are looking to investigate methods to use mining waste to extract rare earth metals, like gallium and germanium.  Afterall these elements are critical for inputs to the production of rare earth magnets for example, fueling a decarbonized economy.  Sectors such as semiconductor manufacturing source the goods mostly from China today.

Presently Australia counts five active alumina refineries, with one recently suspending operations. Down Under also happens to be the third biggest zinc exporter worldwide.  Does this standing afford the nation’s mine production companies the ability to invest in state-of-the-art technologies to extract rare earth elements (REEs) from current mining operations?   Could Australia become a major source of REE-related value for the West?

Pressuring Australian mining operations to make such moves are the rapidly changing market dynamics, and most imminently China’s tightening export controls on key REE, plus growing concern about the vulnerability of the semiconductor supply chain, largely influenced by Taiwan.

China controls approximately 90% of the global gallium market and 60% of germanium, meaning serious leverage and power economically.  It’s true that Chinese sources are not the only supply options, but they have technological superiority at this stage.

For example, China could produce higher quality minerals at far lower price points, along the way disciplining the markets.

Enter the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (opens in a new tab) (CSIRO) in Australia and its quest to find methods to extract the minerals from its current mining operations via a recycling process. Refining alumina (or aluminum oxide) from bauxite ore leading to gallium, while zinc also refining outputs germanium.

While the Australian mines can produce gallium, the lack of demand hindered any activity over the last few decades. But that demand has skyrocketed given changing market meta-drivers, such as ever more intense demand for more powerful computer chips.

Can the current zinc and bauxite refineries switch over to produce rare earth metals in sufficient volumes?  By investing in specific technologies there is a distinct possibility they could continue to mine existing products while incrementally adding recycled REEs to their product portfolio mix.

CSIRO is an Australian Government (opens in a new tab) agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications.  CSIRO works with leading organizations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO maintains more than 50 sites across Australia and in France, Chile, and the United States, employing about 5,500 people.