South Korea should pursue a two-track strategy of urban mining built on its smelting technology and leverage as a major buyer as the global rare earth supply chain undergoes rapid realignment, a state-run research institute said. The country, which lacks domestic resources, should build an alternative supply chain outside China using its smelting and recovery technology while using solid demand from its downstream industries as leverage to become a key global partner, according to the analysis.
In a report on global rare earth supply chain realignment released on the 6th, the KDB Future Strategy Research Institute at Korea Development Bank said smelting technology and urban mining could offer Korea a way forward as China controls 90% of the downstream rare earth value chain and tightens export controls. Urban mining refers to extracting useful resources from discarded appliances and used magnets. The report said smelting expertise accumulated in the non-ferrous metals industry and large-scale chemical process technology have strong technical links to urban mining.
The report cited Korea Zinc (010130) as a model case. Korea Zinc operates smelting and extraction processes that recover critical minerals from secondary materials such as zinc and lead smelting byproducts and electronic scrap. Because it can refine high-value rare metals through byproduct processing technology alone, without using concentrate, the process is both environmentally friendly and profitable. Korea Zinc introduced residue reprocessing facilities in 1992 and has since continued to upgrade the technology, raising its smelting residue recovery rate to nearly 100%.
Since Chairman Choi Yoon-birm took office in 2022 and announced the "Troika Drive" strategy centered on renewable energy, secondary battery materials and resource circulation, the company has continued to expand its recovery technology, including investing more than 120 billion won in building a circular resource processing facility that treats electronic waste and copper scrap to extract 35,000 tons of secondary battery materials a year.
As a result, the company exported antimony directly to the United States for the first time in June last year, and in August that year signed a memorandum of understanding to supply germanium and gallium to Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor in the United States.
More recently, the company has been working with the U.S. government and others on Project Crucible, a $7.4 billion plan to build a large integrated smelter in Tennessee. Through the project, it plans to produce and supply 11 critical minerals locally, including germanium and gallium, which are essential to U.S. defense and advanced industries, as well as antimony, indium and bismuth. The report described the move as an effort to secure a key partner position within the U.S.-led non-China supply chain.
The report also presented the use of leverage as a buyer as a core strategy. It said the biggest challenge in building a non-China supply chain is securing stable sales channels that overcome high costs, and that Korea, with large downstream industries such as electric vehicles, can gain an advantageous position by serving as a long-term buyer.
