Vasily Kolb, Deputy Director General for Geology of the Research and Production Center of Geology, told STV TV channel what rare earth metals Belarus has, BelTA reports.
“There are more than 60 such metals. They can be used in various industries, like aircraft manufacturing, production of spacecraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, mechanical engineering, chemical industry... In other words, there are quite a lot of areas where they can be used today. They are valued a lot in the world, and not every country has them,” Vasily Kolb said.
When asked what rare earths are available in Belarus, the expert noted that they were discovered back in Soviet times. In particular, molybdenum and thulium. “They are located, according to our estimates, rather deeply - 200-250m. But we cannot talk about their industrial use yet. We need to study them more thoroughly,” he emphasized.
According to Vasily Kolb, in order to start mining, it is necessary to carry out geological exploration works: “We will determine the depths, calculate the amount of reserves. The most important thing is to decide on the technology for extracting these minerals. Belarus has no such experience. We will definitely have to study world technologies, contact specialized institutes from Russia. And then we will see if it makes economic sense to delve deeper into this issue and to do extraction and mining.”
The expert was asked whether such works are being carried out in the Gomel and Dobrush area. According to media reports in 2021, about 15 elements were discovered there, including germanium, thulium, silver, and gold. “These are deep mapping works. The terrain is quite challenging there. Our wells are somewhere around 700-900m deep. For now, we are determining the areas where we have the highest content of certain metals or elements. Then we will talk about the feasibility in more detail,” added Vasily Kolb.
