Research Program on the Kinetics of Ultra-Concentrated Mineralisation of Strategic and Critical Metals

The Major Research Plan of “Extreme Enrichment and Ore-forming Dynamics of Strategic and Critical Metals” is an eight-year planning policy designed to allocate funding for Strategic and Critical Metals research projects. The investment is aimed at breakthroughs in metallogenic theory, guiding ore prospecting, and the separation theory of Strategic and Critical Metals, to achieve efficient and clean utilisation of Strategic and Critical Metals. The National Natural Science Foundation of China granted 200 million CNY (around 28.6M USD) for the implementation of the program for the period from 2019 to 2027.

Under the 2021 Fund development plan, metals which are deemed “Strategic and Critical” are the following:

1) Rare earth metals: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium

2) Rare scattered metals: gallium, indium, thallium, germanium, selenium, tellurium, and rhenium 

3) PGE metals: platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium

4) Chromium and cobalt

Want to know more about this policy ? Learn more (Chinese)