Pham Quang Minh, Director of the Institute for Technology ofRadioactive and Rare Elements under the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, said that theapplication of rare earth products is on the rise in recent years, especiallyin the agricultural sector to produce clean and safe farm produce.
Vietnam, owning the second largest rare earth reserve in theworld after China, has yet to develop a processing factory to process rare earth, Minh said, stressing theneed for closer coordination among management agencies, scientists, andenterprises to promote the rare earth sector.
He said that 26% of the exploited rare earth output in the worldhave been used as catalysts in the oil and gas industry and in catalyticconverters for automobiles with internal combustion engines, while about 20 -23% is used in the production of permanent magnets for electric motors.
Meanwhile, the group of rare earth applied in agricultureis added to fertilizers and micro-fertilizers to improve production and plant resilience against pests and diseases. It has also been trialed with animal feed.
The seminar highlighted Vietnam’s achievements inresearching and applying rare earth. It also provided a chance for Vietnam topromote cooperation in technology transfer with other countries such as India,the Republic of Korea, and Japan.
Within the framework of the seminar, the Institute forTechnology of Radioactive and Rare Earth and the Institute for Research and Development ofNew Technologies signed a cooperation agreement on the application of rare earth./.