Vietnam keen on rare earth cooperation with Chinese group CREG

Vietnam welcomes rare earth cooperation between state-owned China Rare Earth Group Co. (CREG) and Vietnamese partners, Nguyen Hoang Anh, chairman of the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC), said Tuesday.

Meeting with CREG chairman Ao Hong in Hanoi, Anh said that the CMSC, which represents the state capital at 19 major state-owned and state-controlled companies in Vietnam, will discuss with relevant authorities details of boosting cooperation between CREG and Vietnam’s national mining group Vinacomin.

Per the Prime Minister’s decision issued in July 2023 on rare earth exploitation and production for the 2021-2030 period, businesses will be licensed to exploit rare earth only if they can make final products with a 95% plus ratio of total rare earth oxide (TREO), using modern technologies and ensuring sustainable protection of the environment, Anh noted.

CREG chairman Ao Hong said cooperation between mining businesses of Vietnam and China was part of efforts to deploy a March 2023 agreement between the CMSC and its Chinese counterpart State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC).

He stressed that CREG has the capacity to run the whole rare earth supply chain, including exploration, exploitation, deep-processing, utilization of renewable resources, research & development of new materials, and import-export activities.

Vinacomin general director Dang Thanh Hai said the corporation has been discussing joint activities with CREG and the cooperation can be furthered with CMSC’s approval.

Rare earths are minerals consisting of 17 elements with special magnetic and electrochemical properties. Rare earth elements are valuable, strategic minerals that play an important role in a wide range of fields including electronics, atomic engineering, machine manufacturing, chemical industry, metallurgy and even livestock and crop farming.

Vietnam will not export raw rare earth elements as this was a very complicated market mainly controlled by big countries, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha had said last June.

The country has large reserves of rare earth elements at about 20.7 million tons, but exploitation and processing have yet to be comprehensively researched.