TOKYO — Officials from the United States, European Union and Japan are pledging to work closer on ways to ensure secure supplies of vital rare earth minerals and other critical materials.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said at a conference Wednesday in Tokyo that improving processing and recycling of the materials, used in many high-tech products, is strategically vital in the medium term. He said that in the near term, they must be “used as sparingly you can.”
China holds about a third of the world’s rare earth reserves but supplies about 90 percent of what is consumed. In the past two years, it has imposed limits on its exports, citing a need to impose order on an unruly domestic market and to reduce environmental damage.
That has raised protests from countries relying on supplies from China for many industries, including automaking and electronics.
The U.S., Japan and EU recently filed complaints with the World Trade Organization over Chinese limits on exports of rare earths.
Looking to the long term, attention has now shifted toward supply-chain security, said Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, EU ambassador to Japan.
The officials repeatedly stressed the need to work closely with other producing nations such as Australia and Canada.
The 17 chemically similar metallic elements are used in applications ranging from wind turbines to guided missiles.
Japan’s need for such materials only increased with last year’s earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster, which has led to the suspension of almost all atomic power production. Such materials are required for wind turbines and other renewable energy production, Yukio Edano said.
“If we cannot access these resources, it will slow the transition to renewables. This is not acceptable,” he said.
The United States has stepped up research on batteries, building materials and high-performance computers as part of the effort to find substitutes for some rare earths, while Japan and the EU are launching joint research this summer.
“The supply chain of rareearth related products is connected globally,” Keiro Kitagami, vice minister at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said at the conference. “Problems with rare earths are a common global challenge.”
Information for this article was contributed by Jae Hur and Ichiro Suzuki of Bloomberg News.
Business, Pages 21 on 03/29/2012