Rare land in Vietnam: Current status of exploitation, processing technology and prospects

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, Professor and Acad. Chau Van Minh, Member of the Party Central Committee, President of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, said that rare lands are indispensable materials in many high-tech industries such as information-telecommunications, healthcare, energy, and transportation, and military, and are strategic and irreplaceable materials for many countries, especially developed countries. With rare lands resource reserves considered to be the second largest in the world after China, Vietnam is being considered as a potential supplier of rare earth materials in the future.

Aware of the importance of rare lands, our Party and State have focused on exploration and assessment of reserves for more than 40 years. However, up to now we have not been able to effectively exploit and process any rare earth mines. Along with the reasons for the consumer market, one of the main reasons is that we do not have the technology to exploit and process rare earths, an area where countries maintain monopoly and do not transfer technology.

According to Prof. Nguyen Quang Liem, Head of the KC02 Program, currently, Vietnam has the second largest reserve of rare land resources in the world but is still exploited on a small scale; It is necessary to promote processing activities to bring economic efficiency, while improving rare earth processing capacity; It is necessary to develop projects and laboratories to improve research capacity in mining and processing technology; environmental impact assessment, environmental remediation after mining and deep processing of rare earths in Vietnam; from there, rare land applications are used in high-value industrial products.

Associate Professor. Dr. Hoang Anh Son, Institute of Materials Science, shared that in the field of rare lands, the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Materials Science under Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology are the first research units in the country. Research oriented to the exploitation, processing and application of rare earth minerals has achieved positive results such as: Separation and purification of rare earth elements; Application of rare earths as catalytic materials (Technology for manufacturing catalytic materials to treat exhaust gas from medical waste furnaces); manufacturing NdFeB rare earth magnets; multi-micronutrient foliar fertilizer product containing rare earth elements-DH'93; 64-step extraction and purification system for rare earth oxides; Technology for manufacturing semiconductor quantum dots doped with rare earth ions, applied in biomedical fluorescence marking and solid state lightingl.

However, currently, the rare land technology industry has not developed as expected, on the one hand because investment in science and technology in this field is not enough and not focused; The rare earth application field has not yet found a worthy position in the market economy.

To promote the sustainable development of Vietnam's rare land technology industry, Associate Professor. Dr. Hoang Anh Son believes that special attention should be paid to researching deep metal processing technology for some rare earth elements (Nd, Dy, Pr) to serve the strategy of energy conversion and emission-free transportation.

Discussing environmental issues in rare land mining and processing, Dr. Duong Van Nam, Director of the Center for Environmental Materials and Technology, Institute of Materials Science, said that in order to sustainably exploit rare earth ores and limit environmental impacts, it is necessary to carry out good assessment work. environmental impact, environmental monitoring; develop and promulgate environmental standards for the mining industry in general and the rare earth mining and processing industry in particular; Research and innovate mining, processing and environmental pollution control and treatment technologies.

The workshop heard many opinions from representatives of management agencies, research organizations, businesses and scientists, clarifying the role and potential of Vietnam's rare lands and their needs in the future. country and the world, the ability to master technology as well as the environmental impacts of rare earth mining and processing activities, and propose some solutions in the coming time.

Concluding the Conference, Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat, Member of the Party Central Committee and Minister of Science and Technology, emphasized that the Conference is an opportunity to connect research organizations, scientists with businesses, businesses operating in the field of rare land mining and processing in Vietnam, thereby promoting cooperation in research, implementing consulting activities, transferring and perfecting technology to serve the development needs of businesses. Comrades highly appreciated the comments and opinions exchanged at the Workshop. These opinions will be researched and synthesized and reported to the Government and Prime Minister, thereby proposing a number of scientific and technological solutions to exploit and process rare earths in Vietnam in a reasonable and effective manne, effective, consistent with the Party and State's rare land industry development orientation.

Some photos at the Conference:

Prof. Acad. Chau Van Minh, Member of the Party Central Committee, President of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, delivers the opening speech at the Conference

Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat, Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Science and Technology, delivers a concluding speech at the Workshop

Exchanges, discussion at the Conference

Taking souvenir photos

Translated by Quoc Khanh 
Link to Vietnamese version