Russia expected to full meet own lithium needs by 2025 - Manturov

MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Russia plans to fully supply itself with domestic rare metals (RM) and rare-earth elements (REE) by 2030 and will devote particular attention to developing production of lithium, domestic demand for which will be covered earlier, by 2025, Deputy Prime Minister and Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said in an interview with Interfax.

"Russia has one of the largest mineral resource bases in the world, including rare metals and rare-earth elements, [for which] we're in second place in the world [after China]. The domestic resource base is capable of potentially supplying the current and future needs of Russian industry, including with the help of putting new deposits into production and building a raw material processing cycle that is as complete as possible," Manturov said.

"In order to ensure sovereignty in the area of RM and REE, investment projects are already being implemented as part of the roadmap for the development of the high-tech field 'new materials and substances technology.' According to its targets, Russian industry will be fully supplied with domestic RM and REE by 2030," Manturov said.

He said particular attention will be devoted to creating a resource base for lithium, which is now imported and then processed in Russia. Lithium is used in batteries, including for electric vehicles.

"There's no problem with processing even now, several plants have capacity to process lithium raw material. Pilot processing of the tailings of the Zavitinskoye lithium deposit in Transbaikal Territory might begin as early as this year. In addition, there are plans to mine lithium at the Talanguiskaya prospect in Transbaikal Territory. There are plans to implement a project at the Yaraktinskoye oil and gas condensate field," Manturov said.

"In the long term, we plan to implement a number of other mining projects. The overall amount of lithium production across all projects by 2025 will meet domestic needs, and by 2030 will simultaneously supply domestic demand and exports," Manturov said.