Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has revised its draft rules on rare earth exports, moving the minerals from a “not permitted” list into the main export catalogue, but only for deeply processed products.
The change is in the ministry’s latest consultation record, which compiles feedback from ministries, provinces, and companies on the earlier draft. The previous edition had placed rare earths among minerals with no products permitted for export.
The ministry at the time clarified that the full supply chain — mining, ore dressing, hydrometallurgy, and separation into individual products — has not stabilized at commercial industrial scale.
The new draft rules now features some rare earth products eligible for export. The permitted products are separated individual rare earth oxides, rare earth metals, rare earth alloys, rare earth alloy powders, and rare earth permanent magnets.
Ore, concentrate and intermediate products remain barred from export.
Two conditions for rare earth export
A rare earth product may be exported only if it meets two conditions at once. It must appear on the Prime Minister’s list of deep-processed products and it must meet the deep-processing standard set by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The draft also carves rare earths out of a general rule that applies to other minerals. For most minerals, a product processed further than the listed level is treated as still qualifying. Rare earths do not get that treatment and must satisfy both conditions independently.
Vietnam’s rare earth resources are 19.82 million tonnes of TR₂O₃, concentrated in the northwest, especially in Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces, northern Vietnam.
Rare earths remain central to permanent magnets, wind power, electric vehicles, electronics, robotics, semiconductors, high technology, and defense.