Heavy rare earth geology is expanding beyond southern China, but separation capacity remains the critical bottleneck. Here's where the new frontiers stand.
Country Profile
Namibia
Country
Overview
About Namibia
Namibia has no rare-earth production or reserves in the USGS world table, but it hosts Lofdal, a heavy rare earth project backed by Japan. Lofdal lies northwest of Khorixas in the Kunene Region, where carbonatite dykes and zones of hydrothermal alteration carry rare earths across a wide district.
Heavy rare earths, hosted mainly in fine veins of the mineral xenotime, dominate the rare-earth content of the ore reserve. That gives the project its focus on dysprosium, terbium and yttrium. Canada-based Namibia Critical Metals holds the mining license through a Namibian subsidiary.
Japan's state agency JOGMEC funded exploration and studies under an earn-in agreement, and the trading house Toyota Tsusho later joined it through a Tokyo-based joint company, TJ Namibia Rare Earths. The feasibility work is testing whether separate light and heavy rare earth carbonates can be made in Namibia, which the developer says fits the government's aim of more processing at home.
Other explorers have drilled carbonatites elsewhere in the country, including Kameelburg and Teufelskuppe. The open question is whether Lofdal's low-grade ore can be concentrated and processed at a cost that makes it a reliable heavy rare earth source for Japanese industry.
Mine Production & Reserves
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Rare Earth Elements
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REEx Intelligence
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