POSCO International said on the 23rd that it created Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) Fund No. 1 with POSCO Technology Investment and will invest in a domestic rare earth separation and refining specialist corporations.
POSCO International's CVC Fund No. 1 totals 25 billion won, and the investment this time is 8 billion won. The investment was carried out to secure a supply system for heavy rare earth raw materials.
Heavy rare earths such as dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb) are used in permanent magnets that can retain magnetism even at high temperatures. These permanent magnets are a key material for electric vehicle drive motors.
However, because production and refining of heavy rare earths are highly dependent on China and have been cited as a structural risk to the global supply chain, the company said the investment will secure a stable source of raw materials.
The target corporations for this investment is a domestic corporations with end-to-end process capabilities from heavy rare earth separation and refining to metallization. It has technology to separate and refine heavy rare earths into oxides with 99.5% or higher purity, and then reduce them back into metals with 99.9% purity.
POSCO International will also push a $30 million joint venture for rare earth separation and refining with a Malaysian specialist corporations and move into mass production.
At the same time, it will take part in a rare earth separation and refining project in Laos to expand its raw material procurement network across Southeast Asia, secure 4,500 tons (t) per year of rare earth separation and refining products, and later expand this to 10,000 t.
A POSCO International official said, "This investment is a strategic investment that simultaneously promotes diversification of critical mineral supply chains and strengthening competitiveness in mobility materials," adding, "We will continue to use the CVC fund to steadily identify promising corporations with high business synergy and secure new growth engines."