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Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, responding to reports in an interview, stated that “the sale of rare earth elements to the USA is out of the question.” He said that the rare earth elements site in Beylikova District, Eskişehir Province, will be operated by the state, and that they plan to lay the foundations of a rare earth processing plant next year, which is expected to be completed within two years.
Extraction will be carried out by the state-owned General Directorate of Eti Mining Operations through open-pit mining, ore enrichment and hydrometallurgical processes. Fluorite and thorium will also be produced as by-products. The scope of activity includes a facility for the long-term storage of radioactive waste and thorium compounds generated during production.
The Beylikova field is the second-largest rare earth element deposit in the world, discovered in 2022. A pilot facility began operations there in 2023 and is still functioning today. The current goal is to expand it into a larger-scale facility, while efforts are underway to increase the purification level, which currently stands at 92–93 per cent.
Turkey signed an agreement in 2024 with China to advance cooperation in the mining sector, particularly focusing on rare earth elements.
