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Turkiye: $1.3 billion profit from boron sales

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez announced that Eti Maden, which broke its own record this year, made a profit of $1 billion 300 million for the country with the sale of 2 million 650 thousand tons of refined boron.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Donmez, said at the 2nd Boron Workshop that Turkiye passed into the class of a producing country, not a consumer of technology in energy and other fields.

Pointing to the importance of smart and responsible production approach, Donmez said, “We have to produce, develop and export domestic and national technology. The century of Turkiye will be the century of mining. The century of Turkiye will be the century of boron and boron technologies. It will be a period in which we give priority to the production and trade of end products.”

Turkiye is the leader in the boron market

Donmez explained that Turkiye has strengthened its leading position in the world boron market with its market share exceeding 62%.

Reminding that Eti Maden had great success in boron production and sales last year, turning boron ores into products with high added value, and breaking a record with 2 million 630 tons of refined boron sales, Donmez said:

“This record also brought our country $1 billion 30 million. This year, Eti Maden, which broke its own record, sold 2 million 650 thousand tons of refined boron, working at 95% capacity, and brought a profit of $1 billion 300 million to our country. Hopefully, in the centennial year of our Eti Maden Republic, it will surpass these figures with a new record.

Eti Maden is a pioneering and exemplary organization in this sense. We have implemented our boron carbide, ferrobor and lithium plants with our new strategy focused on boron end products. Hopefully, in the first month of 2023, we will commission our 1000-ton capacity boron carbide plant. We laid the foundation 3 years ago. Turkiye will now be the new address of boron carbide, which is very important in the field of national defense and in foreign markets, used in the production of wear-resistant machine parts and in nuclear power plants.

Lithium production from liquid boron waste

Donmez stated that they produced lithium from liquid boron wastes with a method applied for the first time in the world for e-mobility, which has become widespread with electric vehicles.Emphasizing that they started the first production phase with a pilot plant with 10 tons per year, Donmez said, “Hopefully, we will hold the tender for our lithium carbonate facility in Kirka, which will produce 600 tons per year in January 2023. We will lay the foundation of our facility as soon as possible. In the future, we will lay the foundation of our second lithium carbonate facility, which will produce 100 tons per year in Bandirma. Thus, by producing 700 tons of lithium annually in both of our facilities, we will produce 50% of Turkiye’s lithium need domestically at Eti Maden’s facilities.”

Donmez stated that Eskisehir Beylikova, where 694 million tons of rare earth elements were discovered, has the second largest reserve area in the world after China, and used the following statements:

“Here, we will establish a pilot production facility that will process 1200 tons of ore annually in the first place. I hope we will commission our facility in February 2023. We will quickly start the construction of the industrial production facility after the R&D studies are completed here. When the industrial facility reaches full capacity, we will process 570 thousand tons of ore annually. In addition, we are starting the project of the new boron carbide plant with a production capacity of 5 thousand tons in Emet, Kutahya.”

“We will take our first steps on the gas center in 2023”

Donmez stated that many projects will be commissioned in the 100th anniversary of the Republic and concluded his words as follows:

“Hopefully, 2023 will be a year in which we achieve significant success in both energy and mining. In the centennial year of our Republic, we will commission the biggest projects of our republic’s history, especially Black Sea gas, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Tuz Golu Natural Gas Storage Facility, Ferrobor and Boron Carbide Facility. We will conduct new drillings in the Black Sea to increase the amount of our domestic gas, which has reached 710 billion cubic meters with new exploration and valuation. Hopefully, we will diversify our energy basket by commissioning Akkuyu’s first reactor. We will increase the flexibility of our supply security with the expansion phase of our Tuz Golu Natural Gas Storage Facility. We will further increase our weight in this field with the opening of our Boron Carbide and Ferrobor facility. Hopefully, we will take our first steps in 2023 regarding the gas center, which has been talked about for a long time. We will share our roadmap on this issue with the public. We will make Turkiye a real natural gas hub in every value chain, from production to trade.”

Within the scope of the workshop, Abdulkerim Yorukoglu, President of the National Boron Research Institute (BOREN), was awarded for his work.

Source: Trthaber / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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