Almonty collaborates with South Korean government to strengthen rare earth supply
March 28, 2022
Almonty Industries Inc, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korean Mine Rehabilitation and Resource Corporation (KOMIR) and rare metal recycler Hannae For T Co, Ltd, in an effort to strengthen the South Korean domestic supply chain through the joint promotion of rare metals recycling (e.g., tungsten and molybdenum).
KOMIR is the government agency responsible for national resource security, including developing overseas mining and processing capacity to supply the Korean market. One of the organisation’s strategic objectives is to upgrade the country’s access to critical minerals. This will be supported by Hannae, which has developed proprietary technology to extract metals such as tungsten, vanadium, and titanium from waste SCR catalysts.
“Security of supply by global leading economies of strategic and rare metals such as tungsten has been a theme that has grown in importance over recent years,” stated Lewis Black, president and CEO, Almonty. “More than 83% of the supply of tungsten is produced by China. Once our flagship Sangdong Tungsten Mine is in production from late 2022/early 2023, it will be the largest tungsten mine outside of China. Given South Korea is the largest per-capita user of tungsten globally, it is no surprise that KOMIR, the Korean Government Agency responsible for national resource security – and other global leading companies such as Hannae – are keen to work with Almonty.”
“We see this as an important further collaboration with the South Korean government who are already providing significant economic and tax incentives for Almonty Korea Tungsten in its construction of the Sangdong Mine,” Black concluded.
The MOU will remain in effect for two years and can be extended by agreement between the parties before the expiration. The agreement can be terminated by notifying the other party.
