Shenghe Resources Analyze 694 Million Tons to Be Ore rather than REO

Shenghe Resources analyze 694 million tons of rare earth to be ore rather than REO. According to the comprehensive analysis of geological experts, “the network information of 694 million tons of rare earths found in Beylikova area in Turkey is speculated to be spread incorrectly. 694 million tons should be the amount of ore, rather than the amount of rare earth oxide (REO).”

1. The 694 million tons of rare earth ore announced to be discovered is located in the town of Beylikova in Eskisehir province in central and western Turkey, which is a rare earth ore associated with fluorite and barite. In the village of Kizilcaoren in Beylikova town, public information shows that there is a rare earth ore associated with fluorite, barite and thorium, Kizilcaören. The public information of the rare earth ore shows that the indicated (controlled) REO resource is about 130000 tons, and the REO grade is 2.78%. (Reference: Kaplan, H., 1977. Rare earth element and thorium deposit of the Kızılcaören (EskişehirSivrihisar). Geol. Eng. 2, 29–34.) This is also the data released by the U.S. Geological Survey. Other early public data show that the grade of REO is 3.14%, and the reserve of REO is about 950000 tons (Reference: https://thediggings.com/mines/usgs10158113).

2. Fatih Dönmez, Minister of energy and natural resources of Turkey, said publicly on the Internet that “The world’s second largest reserve discovery was realized in Eskişehir. The reserve of 694 million tons of rare earth contains 17 different earth elements. This discovery took the second place in the world after China’s 800 million tons of reserves” (https://www.etimaden.gov.tr/en/documents) Recently, the exploration of the mine was completed by Etimaden company in six years from 2010 to 2015. From this public information, it can be seen that Fatih Dönmez did not clearly point out that the newly discovered rare earth mine has 694 million tons of REO reserves, and also clearly pointed out that the mine’s reserves are less than 800 million tons of China’s REO reserves. Therefore, it can be inferred that there is a problem with 694 million tons of rare earth elements in the network information.

3. Fatih Dönmez of the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources publicly displayed on the Internet is “We will process 570 thousand tons of ore annually. We will obtain 10 thousand tons of rare earth oxide from this processed ore. In addition, 72 thousand tons of barite, 70 thousand tons of fluoride and 250 tons of thorium will be produced. I would like to underline thorium in particular here.” The description here points out that the mine will process 570000 tons of ore every year in the future, and produce 10000 tons of REO, 72000 tons of barite, 70000 tons of fluorite and 250 tons of thorium every year. According to the Internet, the amount of ore processed in 1000 years is 570 million tons. It is speculated that 694 million tons of network information processing should be ore reserves, not REO reserves. In addition, according to the estimation of ore processing capacity, the REO grade is about 1.75%, which is close to Kizilcaoren rare earth mine associated with fluorite, barite and thorium, according to the public data of Kizilcaoren village in Beylikova town.

4. At present, the annual global output of rare earth (REO) is about 280000 tons. In the future, Kizilcaören will produce 10000 tons of REO every year, which has little impact on the global rare earth market. At the same time, comprehensive geological data show that the mine is a light rare earth deposit (La+Ce account for 80.65%), and the key elements Pr+Nd+Tb+Dy (used in rare earth Neodymium magnet and its related new energy vehicles) account for only 16.16% (Table 1), which has a limited impact on the global rare earth competition in the future.

Table 1 Distribution of Kizilcaören rare earth ore