Taipei, February 11 (Reuters) – Taiwan plans to send officials to assess U.S. rare earth deposits with the goal of refining the minerals on the island, Economy Minister Kong Ming-hsin said on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to secure U.S. supplies of critical minerals after China last year withheld rare earths needed by U.S. automakers and other industrial manufacturers, rattling top officials and global markets.
Trump last week launched the U.S. strategic reserve of critical minerals called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from the Export-Import Bank of the United States and $2 billion in private funding.
Although semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan is not officially involved in the plan, it has previously held talks with the United States on how to help, given Taipei’s concerns about overreliance on China-centric supply chains.
China considers Taiwan its own territory and has stepped up military threats.
Kong told reporters in Taipei that the department’s geological survey and mining management agency will travel to the United States to assess rare earth deposits there.
“Specifically, what rare earth elements do they contain and are they suitable. In other words, are these the rare earths we actually need. So we still need to investigate,” he said.
Kong added that given that Taiwan itself does not mine such elements, it could play a role in refining materials from other countries.
“Technology is not the issue; the next step is scaling,” he said.
Kung added that Taiwan consumes 1,500 metric tons of rare earths annually, a figure that is expected to increase to 2,000 metric tons as the economy grows.
“Our goal is to expand production capacity to meet half of our demand, thereby strengthening the supply chain.”
(Reporting by Jeanny Kao; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)
