TRENDS Research and Advisory (8 December 2025)

İlker SEZER

Türkiye announced on 15 October the discovery of 694 million tons of rare earth element reserves in Eskişehir province. The country applied to the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) for certification of the discovery a short while ago; however, Türkiye’s quest to find a technology partner to extract and process the reserves began long before. As a source of tension between China and the United States, Türkiye is likely to leverage the reserve discovery to amplify its policies for strategic autonomy. While Türkiye’s finding in the Beylikova field is unlikely to bring short-term gains due to technical hurdles and infrastructural shortcomings, Türkiye might find an important role as a supplier to Western industries in the mid-term. Rare earth elements (REE), referring to 17 specific metals, are considered vital components of modern industrial use such as mobile phones, electric vehicles, civil aviation, defense industries, and clean-energy machinery. Multiple authoritative assessments project continued growth in REE demand to 2040 as electrification and clean-energy deployment accelerate.

President Erdoğan announced Türkiye’s ambitions to become among the five largest producers of REE. Türkiye launched site operations in Eskişehir province in 2011, and the drilling operations have continued since then to evaluate the scope of the reserve. In 2022, initial analyses revealed that Türkiye has one of the world’s largest REE sites with approximately 694 million tons, often compared to China’s Bayan Obo mining district with over 800 million tons of ore. Turkish media report initial reserve findings in Sivas, Malatya, and Burdur provinces, despite no official confirmation on the scope of those reserves. The country established the Research Institute for Rare Earth Elements (NATEN) under the Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mining Research Institute (TENMAK), an entity operating under Türkiye’s energy ministry as a research body on energy technologies, nuclear energy, and raw materials to increase scientific know-how on REEs. The newly highlighted site contains 10 of the 17 known REE—materials critical to defense industries, renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, communications, and space technology.

To read the rest of the article, please click: https://trendsresearch.org/insight/rare-earth-element-reserves-in-turkiye-implications-for-global-supply-chains/