New challenges for the sustainable development of the rare-earth metals sector in Russia: Transforming industrial policies

Abstract

Rare-earth metals (REMs) have become an integral part of modern economics and technological advances. The current climate agenda and sustainable development trends have made the global community focus on these valuable and critical materials. Today, they are strategically important for green technologies, modern electronics, the aerospace industry, the military-industrial complex, and so forth. The increasing demand for these metals provides great opportunities for new competitors in the international market. REMs are controversial: while they contribute to the achievement of global goals regarding sustainable development and climate change resilience, their mining and extraction can cause disastrous consequences for the natural environment. Thus, a balance should be found in the process of their production. Russia has considerable REM reserves that can turn the country into a truly global supplier, which makes the issues of the industry's transformation particularly relevant and important. However, despite the government's ambitious targets and priorities concerning this sector, new deposits are not being exploited, and the country is not self-sufficient throughout the production chain as the level of import dependence reaches 80–90%. The goal of the study is to design an industrial policy for the sustainable development of Russia's REM industry. The study is based on the standard research methods of analysis, synthesis, and decomposition, also using strategic analysis, planning tools, and roadmapping techniques. The study analyzes Russia's REM industry along with its challenges, threats, and opportunities and proposes a novel vision of its long-term sustainable development based on four pillars, namely economics, R&D, ecology, and society. As a result, the key goals and principles of the industrial policy are formulated, and an industrial policy roadmap for the sustainable development of Russia's REM industry is suggested. The paper provides a taxonomy of REM projects to analyze government support measures and ensure the industry's sustainable growth and development.