Despite significant reserves, Russia's share in the global production of rare earth elements is less than 1%. Kirillov noted that the country has promising deposits, but their development requires significant capital investment in infrastructure.
Among Russia's active deposits is the Lovozersky GOK in the Murmansk region, whose output was sold until 2022-2023. However, only about 5% of production was retained domestically. A promising deposit is Tomtorskoye in Yakutia. It has significant reserves, but requires large investments for development, including construction of a railroad and provision of electricity.
Besides, the expert noted to Izvestia that so far Russia produces only semi-products - concentrate of rare-earth metals, which costs about $5 per 1 kg. In case of processing into final products, such as neodymium, the cost rises to $50 per 1 kg. Kirillov emphasized that the question remains whether the market will be ready to buy these end products from Russia or will continue to receive only concentrate.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is ready to resume aluminum supplies to the U.S., and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade reported on preparations for large-scale investment initiatives in rare earth metals (REM) in a number of Russian regions, including the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, as well as the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).