Turkey keen to cash in on rare earth potential

• Significant rare earth deposits
• Planning to invest in extraction
• Production capacity needs development

Turkey plans to become one of the world’s leading suppliers of rare earths, seeking to parlay its extensive reserves into a position of international strength by investing in extraction and processing while also looking to develop downstream industries.

In 2022 Ankara identified a massive mineral deposit in the central Turkish province of Eskişehir containing 10 of the 17 elements grouped in the rare earths category. 

Among the earths identified at the 694 million tonne deposit are lanthanum, used in batteries and lenses; cerium, which has applications in glass and ceramic manufacture and for turbine blades and neodymium, which can be used in the building of lasers and magnets.

Subsequent research has identified sites in central and eastern Turkey that may also hold significant deposits of rare earths.

The sector has become one of the pillars of Turkey’s economic security and industrialisation strategies, Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister Alparslan Bayraktar told a conference in Istanbul earlier this month.

Bayraktar touted the country’s rare earths industry as having potential for domestic and international cooperation and investment. 

“What is needed is not just financing or capital, but also capacity building, knowledge sharing and fair, inclusive and resilient long-term partnerships that will lead us to true sustainable development,” Bayraktar told the conference, which included ministers from nine European and African countries.

While Turkey has a number of sites with potentially large reserves, it needs investment in extraction and purification capacity and into production of value-added goods, according to Ceren Erüst Ünal, head of the rare earth applications and research centre of Munzur University. 

“These resources will most certainly contribute to the Turkish economy, but the issue is not about selling the pure minerals, it is about producing more high value-added goods which will bring in higher returns,” Ünal tells AGBI. 

“More important than its economic input is being able to own this technology ourselves. It is very important to invest and develop the know-how,” Ünal says.

An area where this expertise is being deployed is renewable energy, says Altuğ Karataş, general manager of energy efficiency consultancy VAT Enerji.

“For renewable energy, from the wind turbines to solar panels, we will need rare earth elements,” Karataş says. 

“This will also bring to the forefront the need for electricity storage, which in turn will require batteries and for that we need critical minerals, rare earth elements.” 

• Turkey trade deficit widens paced by consumer goods imports
• Turkey targets trial run at nuclear plant this year
• Turkey’s economic rebound softened by soaring imports

The country’s expanding defence industry is also a market for the domestic rare earths and minerals, Karataş says. 

“The expansion of the defence sector, along with the deeper penetration of technology in all segments of the economy, means demand for rare earths is increasing, putting Turkey at risk of reliance on imports if it does not broaden its own extraction and processing capacity, and look further afield for deposits,” he says.

Turkish entities are already searching abroad for reserves. Turkish state-owned firm MTA International, established in 2016 to conduct overseas mining operations in conjunction with other countries, is active in Niger, Uzbekistan and Sudan.