According to the Japanese Embassy in the city, the centre is the result of collaborative projects between the country and Vietnam under an agreement on rare earth cooperation signed last year.
Though Vietnam has vast potential in rare earth resources, rare earth mines have as yet to be put into operation.

The centre will carry out extraction and separation of rare earth from exploited ore before exporting the product to Japan, the embassy said.

Centre equipment will be funded by Japan while Vietnam takes care of construction costs.

According to the Vietnamese Department of Geology and Minerals, the country has one of the world's largest rare earth reserves, mainly found in the north-west.-VNA