By Lena Smirnova
Russia’s anticipated entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) next year is seen as good news for industrial mineral exporters, but those interested in the country's vast rare earth deposits will have to wait years before they see new supply sources open up.
Experts predict that it will take at least five to 10 years to build new mines in the Russian regions that hold large quantities of rare earth elements.
There were known reserves of 28m tonnes of light and heavy rare earth elements in Russia as of January 2011, according to estimates by the Mineral Information-Analytics Centre, a government agency providing information on minerals markets.
Although the deposits are large, most of them are still untapped due to a lack of resources and investor interest.
Russian manufacturing companies even turn to foreign markets to satisfy their demand for rare earths.
“Russians have been...