"How can rare earths help Central Asia’s energy transition?"
Atlantic Council
23 January 2024
Information: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/how-can-central-asia-help-break-chinas-rare-earth-dominance/
The development of many new technologies, particularly those crucial to the global energy transition, is dependent on rare earth elements (REEs), which has set off a global race to acquire them. With China holding a near monopoly on refining and mining REEs, assertive Chinese foreign policy has accelerated the West’s desire to diversify its REE supply chains. Central Asia is key to that diversification.
While Central Asia is a growing area of focus for the United States, evaluations of global REE endowments have continued to neglect the region. Proactive Western investment in the discovery and mining of Central Asia’s REEs is a crucial opportunity to diversify global REE supply chains and to support regional integration, sovereignty, and economic freedom among the Central Asian states.
A new report from the International Tax and Investment Center’s Energy, Growth, and Security Program, “Leveraging Central Asia’s Rare Earth Elements for Economic Growth,” analyzes the state of REEs development in Central Asia and the geopolitical opportunities for the region through maximizing the development and export of its rare earth deposits. Investment in the development of REEs can help increase economic growth in Central Asia and break China’s rare earth dominance, while producing components essential to the green energy transition.
Speakers
Ariel Cohen
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Eurasia Center
Atlantic Council
Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Eurasia Center
Atlantic Council
Yerlan Galiyev
Chairman of the Board
National Geological Survey of Kazakhstan
Ambassador John Herbst
Senior Director, Eurasia Center
Atlantic Council
Wesley Hill
International Program Manager, Energy, Growth, and Security Program
International Tax and Investment Center
Wilder Alejandro Sánchez
President
Second Floor Strategies
