SAUDI ARABIA Tokyo and Riyadh set to sign agreement on rare earths

The Japanese Prime Minister has started a tour of the Middle East, during which he will meet Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and the heads of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Like Japan, the Saudi kingdom is interested in reducing its reliance on imported minerals from China. According to some sources, the two countries will sign a memorandum tomorrow.

Riyadh ( / Agencies) – According to some sources, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman should sign an agreement tomorrow on a series of joint investments for the extraction and use of rare earths. The information is from the Nikkei Asia newspaper, according to which Japan is trying to reduce its dependence on China for the supply of these minerals.

Kishida is currently in Saudi Arabia as part of a Middle East tour. An agreement is expected to be signed soon between Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan Organization for Metal and Energy Safety (JOGMEC) and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. Under this agreement, Tokyo and Riyadh will evaluate the possibility of undertaking development projects in third countries through joint investments.

Rare earths are fundamental materials for the production of electric vehicle batteries, semiconductors, mobile phones and wind turbines. As part of its national strategy, Saudi Arabia is searching for rare earths on its territory and JOGMEC will assist with its technical expertise in the preliminary studies.

Right now Japan depends on China for almost 80% of its lithium hydroxide supply and more than 60% of its cobalt processing, but China’s export of rare earths to Japan stalled in 2010 when ships from the two countries collided near the Senkaku Islands, which China claims and names Diaoyu.

Tomorrow and until July 18, Kishida will continue his trip to the Middle East to meet with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, with whom he will discuss energy cooperation and other issues. The Gulf monarchies are the main oil and gas suppliers to Japan, which has declared its willingness to provide advanced technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in these countries.