Rare Earth Supply Chain Restructuring... KDB Institute Highlights Korea Zinc
From Rare Earth Recycling to Critical Mineral Production
Accelerating the Establishment of a Global Supply Chain
As global competition intensifies over the rare earth supply chain, a state-run bank has analyzed that South Korea needs to establish its own rare earth supply chain by leveraging its world-class non-ferrous metal smelting technology. In particular, Korea Zinc has garnered attention as a leading case in building urban mining and a core mineral supply chain utilizing Korean smelting technology.
According to the ‘Trends in the Global Rare Earth Supply Chain Reorganization’ report released by the KDB Future Strategy Research Institute of Korea Development Bank on September 2, in a situation where certain countries are tightening controls over rare earth exports, Korea’s advanced smelting technology and urban mining initiatives could become a key solution for stabilizing the supply chain.
Urban mining refers to the business of recovering and recycling valuable minerals from used products, such as discarded electronics and waste magnets. The institute assessed that the smelting technology accumulated through the non-ferrous metal industry, large-scale chemical process control capabilities, and environmental processing infrastructure have a high degree of technological relevance to the rare earth urban mining business.
Rare earth elements are not only used in core industries like electric vehicles and offshore wind power, but also in strategic resources for advanced weapons systems such as missiles and fighter jets. As demand for rare earth elements focuses on permanent magnets, heavy rare earth elements, such as those used in high-performance neodymium magnets, are gaining even greater significance in advanced industry and defense sectors.
The institute suggested that South Korea’s main competitive advantages in the process of supply chain restructuring, given the country’s limited domestic rare earth resources, are its advanced smelting technology and its status as a significant demand center.
South Korea, building on its non-ferrous metal industry, has developed advanced smelting technology and large-scale chemical process control capabilities. Urban mining recycling of rare earth elements, in particular, is considered to have strong technological synergy with the smelting expertise and environmental processing infrastructure held by domestic companies.
The institute identified Korea Zinc as a representative company capable of leveraging this domestic industrial base. The institute explained, “Korea Zinc is striving to secure a key partner position within the U.S.-led supply chain by carrying out rare earth recycling projects in the United States. They are also pursuing the construction of an integrated smelter capable of producing 11 critical minerals in the United States (Project Crucible), as well as a rare earth recycling plant that extracts rare earth elements from waste permanent magnets.”
Hot Picks Today
Who Is the Twenty-Something Man Who Blew $800,000 a Day on Ferraris and Hermes Bags in Nightclubs?
- "The Flavor That Won Over Ahn Yujin" Now at Convenience Stores... 500,000 Units Sold Out in 5 Days, What's Behind the Craze?
- Faster Than Her Mother... Stranger Dramatically Saves Child Running Into Traffic
- Asked ‘Where to Invest $10,000’: “Water, Luxury Goods, and Korea”…Foreign Experts Say “Still Undervalued”
- "Never Seen Anything Like This in My Life, Shocked" Feces Discovered in the Middle of Jamsil Baseball Stadium Passage
A Korea Zinc official stated, “Korea Zinc aims to contribute to stabilizing the supply of key minerals in Korea by utilizing decades of accumulated smelting, recovery, and resource circulation technology. In addition, we plan to contribute to building a reliable supply chain of critical minerals through cooperation with the United States and other allied countries.”
© The Asia Business Daily. All rights reserved. Unauthorized AI training and use prohibited.
