Mitsui & Co. and Sumitomo Corp. are interested in Siberian rare-earth deposits that weren’t expected to be mined until 2030 as Russia tries to fill the gap left when China slashed exports, Yakutia Governor Yegor Borisov said.
Tokyo-based Mitsui and Sumitomo, Japan’s second- and third-biggest trading companies, have held talks with regional officials about niobium and scandium resources in Yakutia, an area of northeastern Russia the size of India, Borisov said yesterday in an interview.
