China has decided to share rare earth technologies with Iran

The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Science Foundation of Iran have selected rare earth element exploration and processing as one of five areas for joint workshops. China is providing 30,000 yuan (approximately $4,200) for each workshop, covering meeting and accommodation expenses, while Iran is covering international travel for its participants and accommodation for Chinese researchers in Iran. Cooperation is crucial because China currently dominates the global rare earth metal supply chain, particularly at the processing stage, and increasingly restricts technology transfer abroad. Iran, meanwhile, possesses geological formations that may contain significant rare earth element reserves. According to The Hague Research Institute, exploration has identified anomalies over an area of ​​approximately 7,000 square kilometers in central Iran. However, discovering deposits is only the first step. Iran's rare earth metal mining and processing capabilities are in their early stages and far from industrial scale. Therefore, processing technologies are a particularly important part of the new cooperation, as developing efficient methods for separating rare earth elements from ore is technically complex and poses a significant barrier to establishing a domestic supply chain. Scientific cooperation between the two countries has been ongoing for several years: their national science foundations signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing in 2017. China considers Iran an important country within the Belt and Road Initiative. The new program expands cooperation beyond rare earth metals to include nanomaterials for disease detection, pollution monitoring, earthquake-resistant construction, and greener manufacturing. The timing of this cooperation is no coincidence. The United States is seeking to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical minerals and reduce dependence on China: the Trump administration recently announced $3 billion in investments in critical mineral and battery mining projects. For China, partnering with Iran provides access to the country's potentially significant mineral resources, and for Iran, it provides the expertise needed to understand its own reserves and develop processing capacity.