Rare earths an ‘exciting’ area of Vietnam-US cooperation: ambassador

The U.S. sees Vietnam as a potential critical nexus in global supply chains when it comes to critical minerals and rare earth elements, and it’s an “exciting” area of cooperation, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper has said.

According to a fact sheet released by the White House after the two countries upgraded their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership on September 10 during President Joe Biden’s two-day visit to Hanoi, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on technical cooperation in rare earth elements.

“We certainly want to work together to ensure that Vietnam is able to take advantage of its rich resources in a way that’s also sustainable,” Knapper said in response to a question by The Investor in an online press briefing on Wednesday.

Vietnam has the world’s second-largest reserves of rare earths of an estimated 22 million tons, second only to China, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The Southeast Asian country aims to raise its rare earths production to 2.02 million tons a year by 2030, Reuters reported in July, citing a government plan.

China in July announced a ban, effective from August 1, on the export of the rare earth metals gallium and germanium, which are used to build computer chips.