Few topics dominate global economic policy in 2026 like critical minerals, and Turkiye has moved to the center of that conversation. At the OECD Critical Minerals Forum in Istanbul on 28 April 2026, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that Turkiye was finalizing a national Critical Raw Materials Strategy, with the Beylikova rare earth deposit as its cornerstone.
A Strategy Years in the Making
The Beylikova site in Eskisehir province is described by officials as one of the largest rare earth deposits in the world. It is managed by the state mining company Eti Maden, which operates a pilot plant capable of processing about 1,200 tons of ore each year at purity levels above 90 percent. Ankara plans to lay the foundation for an industrial scale facility during 2026, targeting throughput of roughly 570,000 tons of ore annually and output near 10,000 tons of rare earth oxides once fully operational between 2027 and 2028. Turkiye has also applied for international certification of the deposit to validate its scale and attract investment.
The Beylikova Question
Rare earth elements are essential to electric vehicles, wind turbines, advanced electronics and defense systems, and China currently dominates both mining and refining, accounting for around 70 percent of mined production and close to 90 percent of processing. That concentration has pushed the United States and its partners to search for alternative suppliers. Turkiye , sitting at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and holding roughly 70 percent of global boron reserves as well, is an obvious candidate to become a supply hub for allies seeking to reduce their exposure to Chinese processing.
Sovereignty First
Yet Ankara has been deliberately cautious. Bayraktar has repeatedly stated that selling rare earths directly to the United States is out of the question, insisting that Beylikova will be developed through state controlled Eti Maden with an emphasis on value added production at home. Any foreign participation, he has said, must come with technology transfer and local manufacturing commitments. Analysts note that refining and advanced processing can generate 10 to 15 times more value than raw ore extraction, which explains why Ankara is so determined to capture the downstream stages rather than simply exporting concentrate.
A Wider Turkic Minerals Race
Turkiye is also widening its minerals diplomacy across several fronts. It signed a mining cooperation agreement with Uzbekistan covering critical minerals and rare earths on 29 January 2026, and it expanded its energy relationship with Germany into a formal Energy and Minerals Partnership on 19 June 2026. So far none of these agreements names a commercial separation partner or a binding purchase deal for Beylikova. There is growing domestic discussion about creating a national critical minerals authority to coordinate policy across the energy, industry and defense ministries. For Washington, the message is clear. The Turkic world holds resources the United States wants, but Ankara intends to set the terms, and the competition for reliable supply chains outside China is only intensifying. Turkiye’s mining sector is targeting more than $10 billion in exports in 2026, and officials frame Beylikova as a way to move the country up the value chain rather than remain a supplier of raw material. Whether that ambition succeeds will depend less on the size of the deposit than on access to separation technology and long term industrial execution.
