POSCO to spend 2.8 tln won on rare metal processing

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Yonhap) -- POSCO, South Korea's biggest steelmaker, said Friday
it will spend 2.8 trillion won (US$2.38 billion) by 2018 to advance its
processing and recycling technologies for rare metals such as magnesium.
As an initial step, the steelmaker plans to spend 35 billion won to build a
magnesium-processing plant in South Korea that will churn out 10,000 tons of the
metal annually. POSCO plans to process 100,000 tons per year after 2014.
Demand for rare metals used in liquid-crystal displays and autos is rising, but
resource-poor South Korea has few reserves.
Also Friday, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the government will invest
300 billion won between now and 2018 into rare-metals technology, aiming to
process 80 percent of the raw metals it consumes from the current 12 percent.
sam@yna.co.kr
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