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• n  a reddish-brown mineral containing rare earth metals; an important source of thorium and cerium

• It occurs in monazite sand deposits throughout the world, notably in Brazil, India, South Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, Indonesia, Malaya and Russia's Ilmen Mountains.
• The terms would be left up to ECA (probably 35 years to pay at 2% interest), and India could repay the loan in strategic materials such as monazite (a source of fissionable .
• Its monazite sands offer the promise of thorium, a source of fissionable material.