After Oil, BRICS Accounts For 72% of the World’s Rare-Earth Metals
July 22, 2024
After the BRICS expansion in 2024, the alliance officially accounts for 42% of the global oil and gas reserves. If that wasn’t enough, BRICS now accounts for the majority of the rare-earth metals reserve totalling to 72%. This gives the alliance an added advantage in global trade in the oil and rare-earth metals sectors.
BRICS countries complement each other for the extraction of critical minerals and production. The cooperation could lead to mutual trade within BRICS members and ensure the continuity of the supply. The alliance can also decide on the stability of the prices and be ahead in decision-making.
BRICS 2024 Summit: Oil & Rare-Earth Metals To Be Discussed
The latest reports indicate that the alliance will discuss oil and rare-earth metals trade in the next BRICS summit. The geological trade deals could be rewritten, giving the bloc an undue advantage in settling cross-border transactions. “Prospects for cooperation between the BRICS countries in the field of studying, developing and rational use of mineral resources,” is on the cards, read a report. **SEE BELOW.
“One of the possible areas of cooperation in this sphere is to expand the mutual trade in mineral commodities and metals for the purpose of ensuring continuity of supplies and stability of prices,” said Evgeny Petrov, the Head of the Russian Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency Rosnedra. He added, “The simple analysis shows that accession of new members to BRICS will provide for 72% of world resources of rare-earth metals.”
Also, if BRICS uses local currencies for rare minerals trade, the US will dollar will begin to face deficits. Read here to know the major US sector that will be severely affected if BRICS ditches the dollar for trade. The BRICS bloc is adding all commodities under its sleeves and could turn the alliance’s fortunes in the coming years.
Geology for the Future: Opening a New Page of Cooperation of the BRICS Countries — July 17, 2024
The rapid development of the global economy, the introduction of new digital technologies, and the growth of the planet’s population dictate the need to change the approach to the country’s resource and energy support.
Currently, fossil fuel provides approximately 84% of the world and 88% of Russian energy consumption. According to the United Nations (UN) and other sources, by 2050, the growth of world energy consumption will be approximately 30%, even taking into account the optimistic trends of energy conservation. Despite the predicted increase in energy production through renewable energy sources (from 86 EJ in 2022 to 220 EJ in 2050), fossil fuel types will retain their high significance in the global energy balance. They will account for approximately 64% of world energy in 2050. The key regions of energy consumption will be South America, Africa, and the developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region. So, for example, electricity consumption in India will increase by 90%.
Despite the decrease in the share, taking into account 30% of energy growth, the volume of mining and consumption of fossil fuel should increase by about 10% by 2050.
On the way to the global energy balance
A number of minerals, such as oil, gas and coal, will retain their demand in the near future, as well as copper, aluminum, iron ore, nickel and platinum, due to economic and technological factors. Along with this, the demand for lithium, cobalt, rare earth metals, and other types of strategic minerals is growing.
According to the forecasts of the International Agency for Ruminous Sources of Energy, by 2050, it is planned to increase the production of ground wind energy 10 times, offshore – 43 times and sunny – 17 times. But even an unprecedented increase in energy production from new renewable sources – by 7.5 times in 30 years (by 2050) – will allow compensating for the increased needs by only 36%, given the atomic and hydropower.
The achievement of a global energy balance is impossible without hydrocarbon raw materials, which at least until the middle of the current century will determine the trends of energy consumption, and hence the main trends in the development of human civilization. On the other hand, it is obvious that the introduction of renewables will continue to increase, which will lead to a significant increase in world demand for critical minerals and rare earth metals.
In the world of rare -earth elements (RZE), only about 140 thousand tons are produced annually – this is very little compared to the production of hydrocarbons measured by millions of tons and cubic meters. But it is precisely the critical mineral raw materials, as it is called in the European Economic Commission of the UN, and RZE are the necessary basis for the production of high -tech products of the 21st century. The need for these elements is growing rapidly, amounting to about 10% per year, and after a few years, growth is predicted for some of them by 40 times.
In order to avoid barriers, such as resource deficiency, the inaccessibility of extraction and the rise in cost of value, the combination of knowledge, experience and technology at the international level is required on the path of energy development.
The wealth of the BRICS mineral resource base
In 2024, the Russian Federation adopted the functions of the chairmanship in the BRICS, the main leitmotif of which was “strengthening multilaterality for fair global development and security.”
The main thesis focuses on the energetic desire of all countries participating in a productive dialogue, which is based on mutual respect, the principles of equality, and sovereign choice of the development path of each state.
BRICS countries have a rich mineral resource base, which can give resources for the economy and become the basis of technological transformations beyond their borders. For the development of mineral resource bases and an increase in the conducted exploration work, we want to offer our colleagues-the geological services of the BRICS countries-to combine efforts and create a new platform for dialogue and cooperation in the field of geology and rational use of mineral resources.
Russia has one of the largest mineral-raw bases in the world, occupying first place in the reserves of gas, diamonds, nickel, and gold. The second is in cobalt, tungsten, titanium, silver, and metals of a platinum group. Third – according to the reserves of lithium, copper, coal, lead, tin, boron. According to the reserves of uranium and rare earth metals, Russia is in fourth place and in fifth place in the extracted reserves of oil and condensate. In our country, there are almost all types of mineral raw materials: these are 229 types of solid minerals, oil, gas, and gas condensate. On the explored reserves of some types of raw materials, we are among the world leaders.
Our mineral resource base is unique and includes almost all types of rare metals, including lithium, beryllium, niobium, tantal, titanium, zirconium, rare-earth elements, scandium, vanadium, etc. However, the extraction of rare metals with the receipt of finished goods is carried out on single deposits. Prospects for profitable production, as in many countries of the world, are associated with the development of their own technologies of geological exploration, mining, and processing of available reserves of mineral raw materials.
Copper is also one of the key metals of the future. For example, more than 10% of the world’s copper reserves falls on Africa, where cobalt, zinc, uranium, cadmium, germanium, radium, lead, silver, gold, platinum, Palladium also contain cobalt, uranium concentrations.
A large number of stocks of critical mineral raw materials and rare earth elements are concentrated on the African continent. It occupies a leading place in the reserves of metals of the platinum group, chrome, manganese ores, cobalt, gold, diamonds, bauxites, and phosphorites Significant African reserves of fluorite, circus ores, uranium, tantalus, beryllium, titanium, nickel, copper, vanadia, lithium, antimony, precious stones. In a number of positions, the proportion of Africa exceeds 30% of world resources: up to 35% in chrome, more than 40% in boxers, 50% in cobalt and manganese, 90% for platinum group metals. The role of Africa is great in the world’s extraction of chromium and manganese. So, chromium mining in South Africa in 2022 amounted to 44% of the world. For the explored reserves of chrome ores with South Africa, only Kazakhstan is comparable (36% and 41% of the world stocks, respectively). Africa accounts for more than 60% of world production of manganese, about 30% of world bauxite and over 75% cobalt (68% is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
It is worth noting that the main risks of the sustainable development of the global economy are the exhaustion of fossil fuel and the imbalance of reserves of critical mineral raw materials and technologies necessary for the successful implementation of the energy transition. On the other hand, mineral resource complexes of the BRICS countries complement each other both for the extraction of critical minerals, and in production, and one of the possible areas of cooperation in this area is the expansion of mutual trade in mineral and metals in order to ensure the continuity of supply and stability of prices .
So, for example, South Africa and Brazil significantly expanded the export of mineral goods due to cooperation within the BRICS, and China became the largest buyer of critical minerals and rare earth elements and secured the continuity of supplies from other countries of the association. A simple analysis shows that the entry of new members to BRICS will provide 72% of the world’s reserves of rare -earth metals.
“Geological platform BRICS”
In the context of the new economy, to strengthen the stability of national development and ensure technological progress, the importance of geological exploration and mining of minerals increases from year to year.
During the period of the Russian chairmanship in BRICS in 2024, we are holding a round table “Prospects for cooperation between the BRICS countries in the field of studying, developing and rational use of mineral resources” with the participation of geological services of the association countries. This is the first meeting of such a format that will undoubtedly contribute to the practical implementation of our plans for cooperation.
In order for our interaction to be regular, the Russian side put forward the initiative of the formation of a permanent mechanism of multilateral interaction – the “geological platform of the BRICS”, which will strengthen the cooperation of participants in the association in the field of subsoil use, in particular in the field of regional geological research, new technologies in geology, and the classification of resources. We plan that the platform will become a platform for organizing the interaction and a wide range of discussions of experts and other interested parties (geological agencies/services, subsoil users and scientists) on key issues of technology development in the geological industry, exchange of knowledge, experience and implementation of joint programs and projects. The platform will also become the basis for the practical interaction of the BRICS countries, the development of joint programs in the field of geology and mining, will contribute to the activation of knowledge, methodologies, experience, the formation and implementation of geological study programs. An important meaning that we put in the platform will be support for the achievements of cooperation in the field of geology and sustainable mineral management management.
In the near future, we must determine the directions of interstate cooperation in which all participants will be interested. It should be noted that the degree of involvement will be determined by the national priorities of each country.
We are faced with general challenges – this is exhaustion and inaccessibility of resources, issues of personnel support of the industry, and investing exploration. But thanks to the developed mechanism of interaction and productive joint work, we will be able to achieve mutual understanding on priority topics and open a new direction of cooperation between BRICS in the field of geology and rational subsoil use.
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