Uzbekistan is to invest $500mn in backing promising projects in the mining of rare earth elements (REE), the presidential press service has announced. The country’s geological sector annually receives up to Uzbekistani som (UZS) 1 trillion ($79.2mn) in state funding. Mining industry production value last year reached almost $11bn. The country extracts precious and non-ferrous metals and has identified 32 types of critical minerals, according to the presidency. It is eager to develop deposits of 32 metals and minerals that it has identified, with the deposits including platinum, indium, vanadiu…