The so-called “rare earths” are minerals that are intensively used in various electronic equipment and in cutting-edge technologies, such as electromobility and the generation of renewable energy.
Automotive manufacturers like Toyota, Nissan and Tesla would have expressed interest in the “Rare Earths” project from Pencoin the Bío Bío region, according to comments by Ramón Barúa, executive director of the mining company Aclara Resources.
“It is important for the United States, Japan and the European Union to have alternative sources of rare earths outside of Asia. The best firms worldwide are interested”, he affirmed to Diario Financiero; and mentioned those three manufacturers.
The firm estimated US$130 million in investments and remarked that the minerals that are in the commune belonging to Gran Concepción “They are very compatible with electromobility” and that they can be extracted “in a very clean and simple way”.
The so-called “rare earths” are minerals that are intensively used in various electronic equipment and cutting-edge technologies, such as electromovilidad and the generation of renewable energy.
They have 15 elements belonging to the lanthanide group (lanthanum, neodymium, cerium, praseodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium) plus yttrium and scandium.
According to information provided by Baldo Prokurica when he was Minister of Mining during the administration of Sebastián Piñera, 90% of the use of rare earths is allocated to electromobility and renewable energy generation.
“Los electric cars carry 10 times more rare earths than conventional cars and wind turbines are large consumers of such material. Chile has important prospects and projects for the extraction of these elements in the Atacama and Bío Bío”, he pointed out when he was an authority.
The project in Penco
In February of this year, 99% of the residents of Penco who voted in a non-binding citizen consultation voted to reject the “Tierras Raras” mining project.
On that occasion, the company Aclara Resources denounced through a public statement various irregularities made by the municipality that “distorted” the vision of the project.
“We value all instances of citizen participation, but we deeply regret that the community is confused through procedures that are not contemplated in the environmental evaluation process, that are not binding and that have a political background, not technical”the company said.
