MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Russia needs to scale up rare-earth metals mining to be in line with dynamics of progress, President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Future Technologies Forum.
"To correspond to dynamics of progress and global competition, we need to exponentially increase the potential of the domestic chemical sector and related branches, build up the entire cycle from prospecting and developing new deposits, including rare and rare-earth metals, to manufacturing of high-technology products with high added value. There are things to work on," the president said.
Russia has all the required instruments to deal with resources tapping, including rare-earth metal sand lithium, Putin noted. "The only point that it should be done purposefully, creating conditions for the business and investing in infrastructure," he stressed.