Korea Aggressive Energy & Natural Resources Program: Locking Up Australia's Rare Earth Minerals

Arafura, an Australian resources company, has reported that it has executed a non-binding agreement with a major Korean construction company to supply to the company rare earth minerals.   The company will provide, according to the company, a viable option to the Chinese rare earth minerals and the Chinese governments increasing grip over these resources. 

Most involved in the energy and natural resources industry know who the Korean conglomerate is, but I will refrain from mentioning the name until it is officially reported.

The company and other Korean companies have been aggressively attempting to secure resources throughout Asia, the Middle East and in the Pacific with many of these projects leading to substantial loses.  The loses occurred, mainly, because of the lack of qualified advisers and the lack of understanding of the nature of business in many of the parts of the world that they attempted to do business in. 

However, the proactive and aggressive approach has lead to Korea maintaining, for the foreseeable future, a supply of the resources needed to maintain the Korean manufacturing economy. 

Rare earth minerals are utilized in batteries, mobile phones and computers.

Other, recent, articles on Korea Energy & Natural Resources:

• Korea's Cap and Trade from 2015
• Korea's Proactive Energy Procurement Policy:  Another Failure?
• Korea's Blundering Natural Resources Procurement Policy

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Sean Hayes, IPG's Co-Chair of the Korea Practice Team, may be contacted at: SeanHayes@ipglegal.com