Turkey says it has discovered the world’s second-largest rare earth reserve in its central Anatolia region, with a pilot processing facility planned by year-end, Kallanish reports.

According to the country’s energy and natural resources ministry, the field located in the Beylikova district of Eskişehir has reserves of 694 million tonnes of rare earth elements. It claims 17 elements were found after 125,193 metres drilled over six years, but only 10 will be processed. Officials added the largest known rare earth reserve is in Bayan’obo in Inner Mongolia, China, with 800m t.

Minister Fatih Dönmez says production costs will be much lower than average because the elements are “extremely close to surface.”

The plan is to eventually process 570,000 t/y of ore, of which 10,000 t will be rare earth oxide. Initially, the government will build a pilot processing plant this year with capacity of 1,200 t/y.

At this point, it’s unclear whether the recently discovered deposit will enable production of the two elements used in EV motors: neodymium and dysprosium.

The minister explains that the priority is to produce the materials that Turkey’s industries need, but there will also be opportunity to export excess capacity. Turkey is working to produce value-added products and aims to include capacity to produce 600 tonnes of lithium annually, Dönmez says, noting projects for boron mines in the Kirka region of Seyitgazi district of Eskişehir.

Rio Tinto has demonstrated battery grade lithium can be produced from waste rock at a boron mine site in California, without the need for further mining. Turkish researchers have been studying economical ways for extraction of lithium from boron clays.