One possible solution is to use artificial intelligence. Since 2020, with financial support from the central government, a research team has been building AI that can automatically process nearly all raw data collected by satellites and other means to locate the rare earth deposit on the Tibetan plateau.
The scientists from the State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources in the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan said the machine has achieved an accuracy rate of 96 per cent.
“China’s demand for bulk mineral resources such as iron, copper, aluminium, coal, and cement that support industrialisation and urbanisation is expected to sharply decline in the next 15 to 20 years. The focus of mining will mainly shift to rare earths,” professor Zuo Renguang, the project’s lead scientist, wrote in a peer-reviewed paper published in Chinese-language journal Earth Science Frontiers last week.
“Rare earth metals are irreplaceable in emerging industries such as new materials, new energy, defence and military technology, and information technology, making them a key strategic mineral resource in global competition.”
What the AI looks for is a unique form of granite that has a lighter-than-usual tone. This may contain rare earths such as niobium and tantalum, which are highly sought after for hi-tech products, but also significant amounts of lithium, which is vital for making electric cars.
The Chinese geologists have found such granite all over the place in the Himalayas, including around Mount Everest, but until recently it was not believed to contain any mineable materials.
But about 10 years ago, Chinese geologists accidentally discovered an usually rich presence of rare earth and lithium in some rock samples collected from Tibet, and started to question the received wisdom.
China is the world’s leading rare earths producer. Photo: Reuters
China currently has a major rare earth production base in Inner Mongolia, and one scattered further south in provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangxi and Sichuan.
But scientists now believe the rare earth reserve in the Himalayas could be equal to, if not bigger than these and may even help China re-establish its position in the global market.
While China previously held a dominant position, with around 43 per cent of global reserves in the 1980s and 1990s, its share had declined to around 36.7 per cent by 2021, according to industrial estimates.
Meanwhile, rare earth resources outside China have seen significant growth, more than doubling from 40 million tons to 98 million tons.
When Zuo’s team built the AI more than two years ago, it was trained using a limited data set, such as satellite images, to identify the light-coloured granite.
Initially it only had an accuracy rate of about 60 per cent, but the researchers gradually broadened its knowledge base by increasing the accuracy of their algorithms.
