On February 13, 2023, Australia's Parabellum Resources announced the discovery of rare earth deposits in the Hotgol region of Mongolia's South Gobi Province, with reserves of up to 27.5 billion tons, surpassing China in one fell swoop and shocking the Quartet.
This news has attracted the attention of Mongolian rare earths, attracting an influx of countries, especially those countries that want to get rid of their dependence on Chinese rare earths, such as the United States, South Korea, France, etc., who are eager to get a piece of the pie.
Previously, the United States Geological Survey estimated Mongolia's rare earth reserves in 2009, which was considered to be 31 million tons, accounting for 20% of the global total (1677%), second only to China's 44 million tons, which can be called rich reserves.
However, Mongolia has a special geographical environment, is located between China and Russia, and is a landlocked country, if you want to establish a rare earth chain, it will be mired in geopolitical quagmire, with many challenges and difficulties.
In early August 2023, Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun Erden visited the United States and met with U.S. Vice President He Jinli, and the two sides signed the "Open Skies Agreement". From the second quarter of 2024, Mongolian civil aviation will be able to fly directly to the United States, and economic cooperation has been renewed.
Previously, the United States and Mongolia had signed a memorandum of understanding in June to jointly develop rare earths and critical minerals, aiming to strengthen the U.S. critical minerals chain in the Indo-Pacific region. This announcement means that the cooperation will be further deepened. The US side held a grand welcome ceremony for Oyun Erden at the Pentagon, demonstrating the willingness of the United States and Mongolia to work together strategically.
Reuters quoted the United States as saying on August 4 that the United States and Mongolia have "creative methods" this week to ensure that this landlocked country, which relies on the goodwill of China and Russia, can independently promote important minerals to the world market. The U.S. is eager to help Mongolia find a solution to better control the mining, exploration, extraction and production of rare earths and critical minerals, the ** said.
Mongolia is rich in rare earth and copper ore resources, which are essential to the U.S. defense industry and the application of new energy technology. Especially in the context of the current global shortage, these resources have become strategic materials for countries to compete for.
Mongolia and the United States reached an agreement on open skies and rare earth cooperation, making Mongolia a new hope for the United States and Europe to get rid of China's rare earths.
In order to get rid of the constraints of its two major neighbors, China and Russia, Mongolia has been actively pursuing a foreign policy of "third neighbor" for many years, with the United States and Japan as its main partners, and seeking more diversified international relations.
France has also joined the ranks and has become an important partner of Mongolia in Europe.
On May 21, 2023, after the end of the G7 summit in Japan, France's Macron visited Mongolia and met with Mongolia's Khurilsukh.
During the talks, Macron made it clear that he would make full use of Mongolia's abundant critical metals resources to strengthen France's energy sovereignty. He believes that Mongolia's rare earth resources have great potential to improve electromagnetic efficiency, help France achieve carbon reduction goals, and build a green new energy industry chain.
In addition, the two sides also reached a consensus on defense cooperation, and defense agencies will carry out a series of cooperation projects to further deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries.
At present, Europe is facing the severe challenge of energy shortage, and France, as one of the important energy consumers in Europe, has extremely high requirements for the stability and security of energy.
Therefore, Macron's important aim is to seek in-depth cooperation with Mongolia in the field of energy, so as to ensure the stability of France's nuclear energy development**. At the same time, given the volatile situation in Niger, the main uranium producing country in West Africa, Mongolia's stable mineral deposits offer France a new option.
It is worth mentioning that Orano Group has already successfully deployed an industrial pilot project in Mongolia between 2021 and 2022, validating the economic, environmental and social viability of operating the Zuuvch-Ovoo mine. This result is the result of a joint venture between Orano and Badrakh Energy, a joint venture between the Mongolian state-owned company Monatom.
Following Macron's successful visit to Mongolia in May 2023, only a few months later, Mongolia's Khurilsukh paid a return visit to France in October. The signing ceremony was held at the Élysée Palace, and Orano Group and Mongolia reached a memorandum of understanding for the development of the Zuuvch-Ovoo uranium project.
In a recent interview, Claude Imarvín, Chairman of the Orano Group, was pleased to confirm that France and Mongolia have successfully signed a cooperation agreement worth up to 1.6 billion euros. This major move will pave the way for uranium mining in Mongolia, a landlocked country.
Under the terms of the agreement, Orano will assume full responsibility for the operation of the Zuuvch-Ovoo mine in southwestern Mongolia. The mine is expected to start production from 2028 onwards and is expected to produce up to 4% of the world's uranium** production.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the uranium mining cooperation, the two parties will also work together to find lithium resources using satellite imagery technology.
In order to weaken China's dominance in the rare earth chain, the United States has united its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, to seek a strategy. South Korea has been particularly active in this series of actions.
In February 2023, South Korea warmly invited the Prime Minister of Mongolia to visit Seoul, paving the way for subsequent rare earth cooperation.
Then, on June 27, South Korea, the United States and Mongolia jointly held the first meeting of the "South Korea-U.S.-Mongolia Trilateral Consultation Mechanism on Critical Minerals". The core objective of this conference is to ensure the stability of the global critical minerals chain.
During the talks, the three parties had extensive exchanges on mineral exploration information, mineral sample analysis and future cooperation directions. They agreed to hold regular critical minerals working meetings in the future to further strengthen cooperation. For example, during the Mongolian Mining Week in Ulaanbaatar in October, the three sides plan to hold a South Korea-US-Mongolia roundtable to continue to promote cooperation in this field.
As South Korea and the United States currently lack the technology and talent to build a complete rare earth industry chain, Kim Sunho, CEO of South Korea's privately owned SOMAN, said that the company has looked for another pipeline to cooperate with mining powerhouse Australia to accelerate the pace of developing Mongolia's rare earth resources.
Looking back at the history of South Korea's contact with Mongolian rare earths, it is tortuous and dramatic. After the rare earth war between China and Japan in 2010, there was an upsurge of rare earth exploration and competition around the world.
Against this backdrop, in February 2011, California-based Green Technology Solutions (GTSO) entered into a joint venture with Rare Earth Exporters, a Mongolian rare earth exporter, to develop Mongolia's abundant rare earth element resources.
The joint venture plans to transport rare earth ore to a railway hub in Ulaanbaatar and then to the Russian port of Vladivostok.
In April 2011, the first batch of GTSO's ore successfully arrived in Vladivostok and was auctioned, which was finally won by South Korea. In the same year, South Korea's state-owned mineral resources corporation (KORES) established a rare earth reserve warehouse in Saemangeum, acquired a stake in a rare earth mineral development project in South Africa, and jointly promoted a rare earth mineral development project with North Korea, actively engaged in "resource diplomacy".
However, due to poor investment returns and heavy losses of the commune, Park Geun-hye** branded the overseas resource development project promoted by her predecessor** as "corrupt" after taking office, resulting in a long-term stagnation in the development of South Korea's overseas mineral and rare earth resources.
After many years, Yoon Suk-yeol actively restarted the rare earth resource development plan after taking office. In addition to cooperating with the United States to jointly enter the Mongolian rare earth source market, Yoon Suk-yeol** also signed an agreement to strengthen the critical mineral** chain during his state visit to Vietnam in June 2023. In August of the same year, it was reported that South Korea's rare earth magnet company planned to transfer its production line to Vietnam.
Rare earth cooperation between South Korea and Mongolia is also deepening. In late November 2022, at the sixth meeting of the Joint Commission between Mongolia and South Korea held in Seoul, the parties decided to organize a meeting of the joint working group on the establishment of a "Joint Research Center for Rare Earth Metals" in Mongolia and cooperation in the field of rare earth metals in the near future.
A similar working meeting was held again in November 2023, further promoting rare earth cooperation between South Korea and Mongolia.
In addition, Australia plays an important role in the development of Mongolia's mining industry.
Mongolia and Australia have long maintained close cooperation in the development of various critical minerals.
In February 2023, an Australian mining company announced the discovery of a super rare earth Hotgol mine in Mongolia, which shocked the world, making Mongolia the world's largest rare earth resource country, and its importance in international geopolitics has also increased significantly.
At present, there are two main Australian companies engaged in rare earth mining development in Mongolia: Black Ridge Mining Company and Parabellum Resources Company. The latter has made rapid progress since entering Mongolia in 2022, confirming Mongolia's global rare earth supremacy in just one year.
1. Black Ridge Mining
On March 2, 2012, Black Ridge signed an agreement to develop a 7,750-hectare Mongolian rare earth project, the key terms of which are: a. The company is entitled to up to 80% of the proceeds of the project. b. Project expenditure should amount to US$5.5 million over the next three years. c. Finally, pay US$750,000 to the Mongolian ** businessman.
Black Ridge is currently investigating a potential rare earths project in Mongolia. The project has favorable topography, is expected to achieve open-pit mining in the future, and the local infrastructure is well-developed, providing convenient conditions for the smooth progress of the project.
The main orebody of the Mongolian program is located within an elliptical alkaline igneous rock body 550m long and 200m wide. Black Ridge has submitted samples for assays and once assay results are confirmed, the company will continue drilling with the aim of establishing a JORC-compliant resource estimate for the deposit.
Based on previous findings, the tenement has heavy rare earth element grades ranging from 300 to 400 parts per million and an exploration target of 20 million to 25 million tonnes. These data provide an important reference for Black Ridge to further advance the development of the project.
2. Parabellum Resources
On February 13, 2023, Parabellum Resources Ltd) announced its maiden resource estimate for the Khotgor rare earth deposit in Mongolia's South Gobi Province, a staggering figure.
Spread over a total of 20 square kilometres of exploration licences, Khotgor's ore resource has reached a staggering 27.5 billion tons, this reserve is more than 6 times China's rare earth reserves!
As a result, Mongolia has become the world's largest rare earth resource country, which has naturally attracted the influx of Western countries** and enterprises.
The Khotgor mine is located 530 kilometers southwest of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, and only 140 kilometers away from China. It is not only close to Mongolia's main copper-gold mine, Oyu Tolgoi, but also not far from Baiyun Obo, China's "hometown of the world's rare earths", which can be described as one of the most abundant geological belts in the world.
In an interview with the YouTube channel Proactive, Parabellum's executive director, Peter Secker, enthused that the discovery of the Khotgor project was very exciting. The prospect has an estimated 2.2 million tonnes of rare earth oxide (REO) reserves, dominated by neodymium-praseodymium compounds (NDPR), which account for 20% of the total rare earth metals.
Because they are the key raw materials for the manufacture of permanent magnets, they are widely used in a new generation of high-tech products, so the demand and ** are expected to continue to rise in the future. The company is currently working intensively on overall evaluation, infill drilling and construction of a pilot plant, and is actively exploring the market, with the long-term goal of increasing annual production to 20,000 tons of rare earth oxides.
Rare earth minerals are widely distributed in Mongolia, mainly concentrated in Ubudsu Province, western Khuvsgul Province and southwestern East Gobi Province.
To date, 5 REE deposits, 71 REE occurrences and more than 260 REE mineralisation have been discovered. Typical rare earth deposits include Halezan Brzegetay, Ruggangol and Mushigai Hudag, among others.
Rare earth element (REE) deposits in Mongolia are mainly distributed in felsic minerals and alkaline rocks from the Late Mesozoic, Early Mesozoic to Middle and Late Paleozoic. The known origin of rare earth deposits (points) can be subdivided into five types:
rare earth element deposits associated with alkaline granite;
rare earth element deposits associated with pegmatites;
rare earth element deposits associated with carbonate rocks;
ion-adsorption rare earth element deposits;
Rare earth-bearing placer type.
Among them, alkaline granite and carbonate rare earth deposits are the most economically significant.
The Mongolian rare earth metallogenic belt is divided into 3 rare earth element metallogenic provinces and 7 rare earth element metallogenic belts
1. Tuva Kusugul Rare Earth Element Metallogenic Province: 1. Delun-Altai Metallogenic Belt (D-AKH); 2. Ulankemu-Allege Erdeni metallogenic belt (UKH-AE).
2. **Mongolia marginal rare earth element metallogenic provinces: 1. North Hangzhou Ai-Selenga metallogenic belt (NKH-S); 2. Sharga-Gobi Altai Metallogenic Belt (SH-GA); 3. East Gobi-Krulen metallogenic belt (EG-KH).
3. Southern Mongolia Rare Earth Element Metallogenic Province: 1. Mongolian Structural Suture Metallogenic Belt (MMLZ); 2. Gobi-Tianshan metallogenic belt (G-TSH).
According to the results of the current exploration and research, the Delun-Altai metallogenic belt and the Gobi-Tianshan metallogenic belt show the development value of tantalum (Ta), niobium (NB), zirconium (Zr), yttrium (Y) and other rare earth elements.
The map of Mongolia shows the location of significant rare earth mineralization sites:
host rocks—carbonatites Carbonate rocks:
1—Mushgai Khudag Mushgay Kudag;
2—Khotgor Cottgore;
3—Bayan Khoshuu;
4—Lugiin Gol;
5—Ulgii Khiid, Urgai Sid;
6—Bayan Obo;
peralkaline granites;
7—Khanbogd;
8—Khalzan Buregtei Harzan Bregtay;
9—Ulaan Tolgoi Ulan Tolgoi;
10—tsakhir Chakir;
11—Ulaan del Ulandal;
12—Shar Tolgoi Shar Tolgoi;
13—maihan uul;
No. 6 is a large Baiyun Obo rare earth deposit located in Inner Mongolia, China.