TELF AG examines Türkiye’s emerging role in the strategic minerals industry
The possible evolution of Ankara’s role
From 2022 onwards, the Minerals Security Partnership has sought to bring together all those nations interested in valorizing strategic minerals for their economic development, focusing in particular on the production, processing, and recycling of these materials so important for the modern needs of industry. According to the Middle East Eye, Türkiye will be one of the following members of this transnational association’s forum. Türkiye has reportedly joined the forum to collaborate with the European Union and the United States in producing important raw materials, such as rare earths.
The Minerals Security Partnership, created in 2022 also to ensure a stable supply of raw materials by member states, currently includes several nations such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union, while the forum linked to it, created in 2024, brings together partner countries and some important mineral producers, such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Namibia. In the case of Türkiye, the possible accession to the Minerals Security Partnership forum would have to do, above all, with its endowment of rare earths, a particular group of 17 elements used for producing electronic devices and batteries. In 2022, Ankara announced to the world that it had discovered on its territory the second-largest global reserve of rare earths in the town of Eskisehir, which would contain almost 700 million tons of these precious elements. For Türkiye, as the Middle East Eye recalls, the goal is to reach the production of 10,000 tons per year of rare earth oxides, 72,000 tons of barite, and 70,000 of fluorite.
The necessary infrastructure
To achieve these goals, however, Türkiye needs to develop adequate infrastructure for the processing of these mineral resources, as well as adequate technical and technological support. Ankara’s membership in this forum, as the media outlet recalls, could boost Turkish production of rare earths, particularly regarding sourcing, processing, and recycling, and it could also help the country receive adequate technical assistance and benefit from dialogues with consumer countries.
From this point of view, Türkiye has already started to move. For the sourcing of rare earths, Ankara is currently negotiating with China, the world’s leading producer of these resources, and would be also open to cooperate with Western partners to develop its rare earth potential, as reported in the Middle East Eye analysis. For Türkiye, an element of great importance would be the creation of adequate infrastructure within its territory to process the material itself without having to export the raw material for processing abroad.
The collaboration between the European Union and Ankara on rare earths has already borne fruit: not long ago, the European Union had launched a specific initiative aimed at strengthening the Turkish system for the production of rare earths, a 12-million-euro project that also included the strengthening of the research center of the University of Munzur, specialized in rare earths. Recently, the role of Türkiye as an emerging power in the mineral sourcing sector was also underlined by Jurgis Vilcinskas, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Türkiye.
