According to Bloomberg, Turkey is working with China to jointly exploit rare earth element deposits, a potential partnership that could make Turkey more attractive to Chinese electric car and battery makers.
Earlier this year in July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan and held talks on cooperation with China to develop rare earths.
Sources close to the matter said that the Turkish government has planned to send its Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar to lead a delegation to China in October this year for further talks. Previously, Turkey has formally applied to join the BRICS group of emerging market countries, including China and Russia.
Sources familiar with the matter said Turkey hopes that potential cooperation with China could encourage Chinese companies, including BYD, to produce batteries in Turkey. Turkey just recently struck a deal with BYD to produce electric cars on Turkish soil.
Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources declined to comment in response to the reports, and China’s Ministry of Commerce has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Last month, Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Fatih Kacir said, “We will continue to build an industrial facility that will allow Turkey to play an important role in the global supply chain of rare earth elements.” Indeed it’s not just rare earths, Turkey wants to play an active role in the entire supply chain from raw materials to finished electric cars and batteries.
Two years ago, Turkey discovered what it calls a significant amount of rare earth elements at Beylikova, near Eskisehir in central Anatolia. Turkey’s energy ministry said it plans to build a refinery there to process the raw materials.
Turkey reportedly expects to refine the compounds found at Beylikova into individual elements of the highest possible purity. At the time, the Global Times reported that this created an opportunity for cooperation between China and Turkey.
Over the past 30 years, China has dominated mining, especially rare earth refining. Rare earths consist of 17 elements and are used in wind turbines, military hardware and electric cars.
However, while China’s influence has caused growing alarm in the United States and the European Union, foreign countries face a range of challenges in strengthening alternative supplies of rare earths and other key minerals, such as technological setbacks, regulatory delays and social opposition.
The EU has begun to impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars, and BYD has signed a deal to build a plant in Turkey given the customs union agreement between Turkey and the EU. Turkey has also held separate talks with Chery Automobile, SAIC and Great Wall Motor.