France and Japan broke new ground in March in a shared quest to bolster resilience in critical mineral supply chains amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.
In a remote corner of southwest France, the first stone was laid in a project to extract heavy rare earths, notably dysprosium and terbium, from mineral concentrates and recycled magnets — the first such venture outside of China.
If all goes to plan, the facility backed by French and Japanese public and private financing could account for up to 15% of global oxide production of these two metals once it becomes operational at the end of next year.
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