Keith Nuthall and Mandy Kovacs report that Vietnam hosts a number of rich but largely undeveloped mineral resources and a new FTA with Europe is expected to see more resource investment flow into the country. One expert has warned that the deal could also ease the export passage of minerals smuggled from China.
Consultant Jim Hedrick, a past U.S. Geological Survey rare-earths specialist, told IM that the south China rare earths mines, which are a rich source of ion-adsorption clays containing valuable heavy rare-earth elements, are close to the border with northern Vietnam and are in prime position to avoid official export channels and send material out of China illegally. The region is mountainous and hard to patrol, Hedrick said, noting that local miners could be encouraged to sell their product illicitly to Vietnamese traders.
Vietnam has its own sources of rare earths, such as the Dong Pao mine northwest, close to the border with Chinese Yunnan province. This means that the Vietnamese can credibly claim to have produced the minerals themselves, when in fact they have been smuggled from China, Hedrick explained. Illegally traded Chinese minerals and metals could now find an easier passage into Europe, using the FTA to increase access to EU markets.
The South China heavy rare-earth deposits, which include europium, dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, used in applications such as phosphors, lasers and alloys, command higher prices than light rare earths and China has sought to control their export in the past through the use of production curbs.
A U.S.G.S. report also mentions that Vietnam has one of the largest antimony ore resources in the world, and the Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources (VIGMR) recently announced the start of the construction of a 200,000-300,000 tpa antimony processing plant in Quang Ninh province.
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