Lena Smirnova
Russia’s anticipated entry into the World Trade Organisation (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 ten years to build new mines in the Russian regions that hold large quantities of rare earth elements.
As of January 2011, there are known reserves of 28m tonnes of light and heavy rare earth elements in Russia, 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 have to import to satisfy their demand for rare earths.
“Russians have been looking around...