China Tightens Supervision of Rare Earth Industry to Prevent Illegal Mining and Waste

Anchor: The Chinese government has announced that it will tighten the supervision of the country's rare earth industry to prevent waste, illegal mining and over-exploitation. Shuangfeng has the details.

Rare earth is a rare and important strategic resource. As the world's largest rare earth-exporting country, China is stepping up its efforts to regulate the industry.

Zhang Yin, Director of the Rare Earth Department at the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, points out that one of the most serious problems plaguing the industry is illegal mining.

"Out of their own interest, some people sell their illegally mined rare earth at low prices. Waste is also a big problem in illegal rare earth mining."

It's reported that at Zhudong Mine in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, half a million rare earth elements can be extracted from every 10 million tons of iron ore each year. But only 10 percent of the extracted rare earth elements is fully used.

As the largest rare earth exporter, China sells its rare earth elements at low prices on the world market.

Zhang Guiqing, Director of the Rare Metal Metallurgy Institute at Changsha-based Central South University,
explains.

"There are many small-scale rare earth exploiting companies in China. They compete by lowering their prices to survive. "

At the same time, China's customs estimates that about 20-thousand tons of rare earth elements are smuggled out of the country every year, accounting for almost one-third of the country's total rare earth exports.

Zhang Guiqing adds that rare earth mining activities cause a great deal of damage to the environment. For each ton of rare earth elements mined, about 200 square meters of plants are removed and 2,000 cubic meters of mine tailings are produced.

To regulate the industry, the State Council has announced that China will create a complete supervisory system, promote structural upgrades and research in key application technologies over the next five years.

At the same time, a Rare Earth Industry Association will officially be set up later this year.

Rare earth plays an important role in strategic industries such as new energy, energy conservation, environmental protection and new material. China used to hold 90 percent of the world's rare earth reserves. But now it has only 30 percent.

For CRI, this is Shuangfeng.