Can Europe build a mineral supply chain?
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Travel specialists answer the phone 24-7. Book today for our best deals on summer travel at CheapoAir.com. CheapoAir.com. Hello, I'm Jonathan Josephs, and this is Business Daily on the BBC World Service, where all this week, we're looking at the critical minerals that shape our modern world. Today, I'm in the French port town of La Rochelle for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the biggest rare earths metal processing plant outside of China,

It's where the rocks that are dug out of the ground and their recycled remains are attacked with chemicals and extreme heat to be transformed into the elements we rely on for our computers, phones, electric vehicles and more. Much of that is in the form of permanent magnets. It's basically like you have a multifruit juice with orange juice, apple juice, pineapple juice. The objective of the liquid separation unit will be to separate apple juice on one side,

orange juice on the other side and so on. Demand for these metals is surging, with billions of dollars being invested in mining, refining and even recycling. The best way to manage it is to use as much as possible recycled material because those are already in Europe. And instead of sending back those materials to China or to other regions, let's keep them and

and recycle the material. But how can a plant like this really compete in an industry hugely controlled by China? China is today dominant in this industry, but all the things we are doing here is to develop the capacity here in France. It's very important for the European economy because we have to build a sovereign and resilient economy. The front line of Europe's fight for rare earth metals. That's Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

Welcome to the historic port city of La Rochelle, about halfway down France's Atlantic coast. The country's red, white and blue flags are fluttering from the top of two 14th century fortresses in front of me. They tower over the modern yachts anchored here. Today, the city finds itself as one of the unexpected front lines in Europe's battle to take control of the 21st century economy. The old limestone buildings are part of the attraction for tourists.

But it's some very different materials that are putting it on the map for Western politicians. Well, we're in the car now on the way to Solvay's rare earths processing facility. They don't let very many people in here. What happens here is crucial to making so much modern technology work. From electric vehicles to smartphones and MRI scanners in hospitals. Plenty more besides. Now, this is the largest plant of its kind outside of China.

It's spread over 40 hectares. It's been here since 1948. And there it is coming into view. There's a series of cylindrical tanks, different shapes and sizes, interspersed with industrial buildings with their vents and pipes spewing steam and hot air into the atmosphere. Let's go and take a look inside.

So we've just arrived at the premises and safety is the first order of the day. We've been given these blue overcoat jackets with fluorescent strips on them, which will keep us clean and safe from any chemicals. And we've also been given hard hats. I've got one here, put it on my head. And we've been given the safety goggles too, which we've got to unwrap. And that means we are ready to go and have a look around this site.

What's quite striking is the smell of the chemicals dominating the site almost as much as the seagulls which are coming in from the ocean, giving you a sense that you are right here on the Atlantic coast. This is the very beginning of the processing journey. A forklift truck has brought this one-tonne sack from the warehouse to this part of the plant where the white sack with its blue seams full of rocks...

recycled material in this case has been loaded into a steel cage and it will now be hoisted up into the roof of this facility where it will begin the next stage of its journey into rare earths.

I'm Sébastien Scarcy. I'm the site director of Solvay-la-Rocher. How many of these one-tonne sacks do you process every day? We cannot disclose our capacity, but you can imagine a lot, because, as you know, we have a strong ambition to deliver 30% of the permanent magnet's needs in Europe. The sack has made its way inside, and it's in a building where there are seemingly endless pipes going in every different direction.

This is where it will be attacked by chemicals as they start breaking it down into the 17 different types of rare earths. Good morning, I'm Florian Gounod. I'm a production site manager here in La Rochelle. Florian, how long have you been working here? Almost three years. I joined Solvay in May 2022. Have you got used to the smell of all these chemicals now? What smell?

Basically, what we do here in La Rochelle is we separate and we purify rare earth elements. What we do is we attack raw material, raw material coming from some mines, and what we will do with the liquid-liquid separation units, we will separate and purify the rare earth element. Let's say we have mixed rare earth nitrate with lantanium, cerium, praseodymium or neodymium, example of a rare earth element,

and the objective of the liquid-liquid separation unit will be to purify

cerium on one side, lantanium on the other side. It's basically like if you have a multi-fruit juice with orange juice, apple juice, pineapple juice, the objective of the liquid separation unit will be to separate apple juice on one side, orange juice on the other side, and so on. That's a really good way to explain it. So we're walking up a flight of metal stairs on our way to the separation room, which is where a lot of the magic happens.

making fruit out of fruit salad, as Florian explained. We're stepping inside to a huge room. Must be almost the size of a football pitch here. It's row after row of conjoined metal vats. There are pipes that stick up into the ceiling. These vats are about a metre high. And this is where...

a lot of that separation happens. What you see here is that we will separate by pair, one by one, the rare earths from the others. In front of you, you have a mix of neodymium and praseodymium and we will separate into neodymium nitrates and praseodymium nitrates. But let me just describe that. What we've got is almost like a high school chemistry set here with these big vials

full of liquid substances. Sebastian, what's going on there? So the process is solvent extraction. The brown part that you see on the upper part is the solvent. The bottom part, which in that case is green, full of praseodynium, is the aquaspace. So the principle is to mix, like making vinaigrette, in

in France and you mix and some rare earths are more keen to go to the solvent phase and some rare earths are more keen to stay in the aqueous phase. In that case the presaionidium which is green stay in the aqueous phase and the neodymium which is more keen to go to the solvent go in the brown phase. The sound you can hear is the kill

The first thing that strikes you as you walk into this building is the intense heat and the dominant feature in this room is the kiln. It's a huge tube lying on its side looking a bit like a space rocket being taken to the launch pad. It's made of steel on the outside and brick on the inside. At each end though it's turning as part of this process. Why do you need a kiln when you're refining rare earths?

At the end of the separation stage, we have liquid. At the end, we need our finished product is a powder. So we need to transform the liquid, the rare earth nitrates, into rare earth oxide, which is a powder. So we have a specific wet process to transform the liquid into solid by precipitation. We remove the solid.

keep some moisted solid and put in the calcination just to first remove the liquid and give its final properties. In this vast warehouse, the first thing that strikes you is the relief of the air conditioning. It's an immense place with four rows of shelves. Each one goes on and on and on. It's fascinating how many...

would a typical customer be taking in one go? We are exporting 85% out of France, 50% in Europe, and the other one is overseas. Now we've seen how it's refined, let's see the final product with... Marianne Kjellberg, and I'm a research engineer in La Rochelle.

Marianne, just explain what we've got on this table here. Okay. It's just powders of different colours. And every powder that you can see here, it's a rare earth element. And maybe I can show you my favourite. So these are the ones that we use in permanent magnets. And they are? Naodinium and praseodymium. We use Solvay knowledge to turn them back into a powder.

And this powder has to have specificities, features to be used to become later a permanent magnet for electric vehicles or windmills. You're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Sometimes life calls for a better mattress. And sometimes life hands you a better place to find one. Announcing the grand opening of Mattress Warehouse with the largest selection of top brands at the lowest prices. That's the warehouse advantage.

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It's like family. Lurie Children's, all for your one. I'm Jonathan Josephs in La Rochelle, looking at Europe's attempts to keep a foothold in the lucrative rare earth metals industry. So that's how the rare earths go from recycled and unfiltered materials to ready for use in the latest tech that companies around the world are making.

But the company they depend on and that runs this site is using processes built up over its 162 years of history.

Today, Belgium's Solvay is run by Philippe Queren. I asked him how important it is that Europe becomes self-sufficient and expands its own mining of rare earths. I think it's important indeed to also be independent. Keep in mind that we can use recycled material. So, of course, today it's still the beginning because you don't have a lot of end-of-life electric motors and so on. But this will develop.

And by 2030, 35, you will have more and more material. And this can represent a big part of the sourcing. Today, there is no source coming from Europe, but we have from Brazil, from Canada, from Australia, and in the future, maybe Europe. So it's important as well to develop this part.

How important is it to develop that part, those raw materials that are dug out of the ground here in Europe? It's absolutely necessary to have our own mines, not necessarily a lot of them, because again we can have

have a mix, but it's important to have our own sourcing. What are the risks if that doesn't happen? We will manage. You know, this is not under our control. We cannot say we want a sourcing from Europe if there is no mine in Europe. And I think the best way to manage it is to use as much as possible recycled material, because those

are already in Europe. And instead of sending back those materials to China or to other regions, you know, let's keep them and recycle the material. Is the infrastructure there to facilitate this recycling? Not yet fully. I mean, we need to continue to work on this. You know, in Europe, it's sometimes difficult to recycle materials that are considered as a waste.

But I think the regulation will evolve and will make that possible. And in terms of volume, is there enough in circulation in Europe?

Or do we still need more materials to come into the supply chain? We will still need more material coming from the mining. I think the recycling can probably represent 30% or maybe even a bit more, but never 100%. How important is it that you get financial help from the French government and possibly from the European Union to making this plant viable?

Today, almost all these materials come from China. China has enough capacity and is competitive. Why would we invest if there is no incentive for our customers or potential future customers to buy from us? Because they can get today competitive material from China. If we want to have a European supply chain, we need to change what we do today. We need to do it differently. So we need to probably incentivize those stakeholders

to buy European-made rare earth oxides or European-made permanent magnets. Politicians are constantly talking about rare earths these days, focusing on supply chains and

where those materials are coming from and where they're going to. But do they need to spend a bit more time thinking about the skills involved in it? Yes, it's very, very important to develop this know-how and to make sure that we preserve this know-how where it is today, like in this place. And if that know-how disappears, what does that mean? You are dependent. You rely on someone else. And in this case, that would be China? That would be mostly China.

Well, China's rare earths industry has benefited from billions of dollars of government help over the last 30 years or so. And in April, Beijing increased export controls amid its ongoing trade war with the United States. But here in Europe, there are just two rare earth processing facilities, one in Estonia and this one in La Rochelle, France. And there were many dignitaries here for the launch of its new production line.

So are European governments willing to step in and back facilities like this? That was a question I put to one of those dignitaries, Benjamin Gallozo, the man in the French government who reports directly to President Macron on all things metals and ores.

China is today dominant in this industry, but all the things we are doing here is to develop the capacity here in France. It's very important for the European economy because we have to build a sovereign and resilient economy. And currently, we are dependent on imports on this kind of rivers, and there is a concentration in a few countries of this supply.

Why is it important? It's important because in the current world we have to be resilient. We cannot depend on single sources for our supply and that's why the French government has supported this facility because we need to invest and we are investing in railroads but also in lithium extraction, also in cathodic active material production for electrical vehicles.

recycling, all this kind of very big industrial investment. It represents billions and billions of euros. And at the same time, we have signed 15 agreements with different countries all around the world because these countries also have resources. And it's a win-win situation where they can develop their industrial capacity, we can import. So really, our strategy is working, I would say, on two feet.

developing capacity here in France and in Europe, and international cooperation. What are the risks that you are trying to overcome in terms of making sure that Europe can stand on its own two feet with rare earths? Having a dependency on a single source, it's dangerous because you cannot know what will happen to this source. We have to get a significant part of our supply by ourselves.

It's a question of sustainability and also when we have the operation of a plant like that in France, we are able to control more precisely the impact on the environment and so on. So on a security point of view, it's important and also on the economy point of view. Being able to create value-added here in France and in Europe is of course very important. And that point about environmental sustainability brings us to the end of today's edition of Business Daily.

Tomorrow, Sam Fenwick will look into the darker side of our hunger for critical minerals, allegations of human rights violations and environmental damage. Is mining cleaning up its act? Today's programme was presented by me, Jonathan Josephs, and produced by Matt Lines and Tracey Langford. And remember, you can still listen to more episodes of Business Daily wherever you get your podcasts.

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