20 May 2025, 13:30

Belarus' nature minister suggests extracting rare earths from waste

MINSK, 20 May (BelTA) – At the meeting on waste management and recycling hosted by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 20 May, a proposal was put forward to use Russia's practices to obtain rare earth elements from industrial waste, BelTA has learned.

According to Prime Minister Aleksandr Turchin, all the waste generated in the country can be divided into two groups - industrial waste and domestic waste. Much of industrial waste is not recycled. This mostly pertains to waste generated by Belaruskali and Gomel Chemical Plant. According to the prime minister, the remaining part of industrial waste is recycled in one way or another.

According to Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Sergei Maslyak, an estimated 60 million tonnes of waste was generated in the country in 2024, including 56 million tonnes of industrial waste. Some 70% of this waste is large-tonnage waste of two types - phosphogypsum (a solid waste byproduct generated by Gomel Chemical Plant; more than 26 million tonnes have been accumulated to date) and halite waste generated by Belaruskali.

The minister reported that experts have studied Russia's experience of phosphogypsum utilization. At the meeting the president was shown samples of products made from this waste in Russia, in particular, rare earth elements.

A reminder, not so long ago the head of state instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection to examine the country's subsoil for new types of minerals, including rare metals and rare earths.

In this regard, the minister suggested studying Russia's experience and examine the economic feasibility of recycling phosphogypsum in Belarus. According to him, one tonne of phosphogypsum contains about 80-84 kg of artificial gypsum (according to some estimates, it has even better characteristics than natural gypsum), about 12-14% of it is waste, and about 0.5% are rare earths that are successfully extracted in Russia.

“With this in mind, I suggest that our National Academy of Sciences should study this matter and if it looks promising, we could put it into practice. Gomel Chemical Plant could install lines to obtain concentrate. And then, if it makes economic sense, we should consider building a plant to obtain rare earth elements from this concentrate to be later used in production,” said Sergei Maslyak. He believes that the products that will be extracted have export potential: “I think there is a niche for the Republic of Belarus. Therefore, from my point of view, this issue is worth diving into,” he added.