Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) is accelerating efforts to secure domestic processing, separation, and refining technologies to respond to the rare earth supply chain crisis. It intends to pursue a national-level supply chain stabilization strategy by viewing rare earths not simply as a resource issue, but as a technological challenge of converting them into feedstocks that can actually be used in industry.
KIGAM unveiled its strategy for securing the rare earth supply chain and self-reliance technologies at a media day held at its Daejeon headquarters on the 12th.
Rare earths are critical minerals used in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, smartphones, semiconductor equipment, and advanced weapons. The problem is that simply mining ore does not make it immediately usable in industry. Only after going through beneficiation to select needed components from the ore, smelting to extract metallic components, separation to split various rare earth elements, and refining to increase purity, do they become high-purity feedstocks used in electric vehicle motors or defense components.
KIGAM assessed that the core problem in the current rare earth supply chain is not "the inability to make them cheaply," but "the lack of the ability to make them." In the past, the rare earth processing industry moved to China due to low labor costs and environmental regulatory burdens; over the following 30 to 40 years, China accumulated industrialized technologies, and now the technology gap itself has become a supply chain barrier, it said.
Kwon I-gyun, the KIGAM president, said, "Rare earth minerals exist in various regions around the world, but the actual pathways to process them into feedstocks are concentrated in China," adding, "The notion that we could do it anytime we want, but simply choose not to due to environmental issues, can lead to policy misjudgments."
KIGAM presented two pillars for its rare earth supply chain strategy. The first is supply chain stabilization. By cooperating with overseas resource countries to provide exploration capabilities, while simultaneously advancing processing technologies, it aims to secure technological credibility so that Korean corporations can participate in overseas mine development and local processing.
To that end, KIGAM this year launched development of core equipment technologies for the "rare earth processing K-Plant." The K-Plant project localizes processes and equipment that extract required elements from rare earth ores or recycled feedstocks and turn them into high-purity industrial compounds.
In particular, it is focusing on catching up in technologies for recovering middle and heavy rare earths, an area where China is strong. Middle and heavy rare earths are used to improve the heat resistance and performance of high-performance permanent magnets, making them crucial in electric vehicles, robotics, aerospace, and defense. KIGAM plans to ensure that technology development leads to actual supply chain building through cooperation with resource-holding countries and commercialization links with domestic corporations.
At the same time, KIGAM is pursuing development of eco-friendly processes that dissolve and separate rare earths using natural organic solvent systems based on lactic acid and urea. Resource-circulation technologies to recover rare earths from waste magnets and spent batteries are another pillar of supply chain stabilization. Given the lack of large-scale rare earth mines in Korea, "urban mining," which reuses post-consumer products as resources, can be a realistic alternative.
In the mid to long term, the goal is to establish full-cycle self-reliance technologies spanning exploration to processing and feedstock production, based on feedstocks that can be secured domestically and in the western Pacific. KIGAM is currently conducting rare earth resource exploration in the western Pacific.
Kwon said, "Resource development on the high seas, such as in the western Pacific, is a long-term task that must follow international norms and procedures set by bodies including the International Seabed Authority (ISA)," adding, "We must start accumulating exploration data and technologies now to avoid falling behind in future resource competition."
KIGAM also introduced research on lunar and Martian resource exploration and on artificial intelligence (AI)-based responses to geohazards. Key tasks in space resources include creating lunar elemental maps using data from the Danuri gamma-ray spectrometer, analyzing candidate lunar landing sites, and developing in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies. It also unveiled the AI-based geohazard response platform "K-Guardian," which integrates analyses of earthquakes, landslides, sinkholes, and coastal disasters.
Kwon said, "Critical mineral supply chains, future space resources, and responses to compound disasters are strategic research areas that determine national future competitiveness and public safety," adding, "We will take the lead in conducting the research the nation needs."