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2 | Wednesday, August 7, 2019 CHINA DAILY
expand its high-end rare earth offer-
ings. It predicts its revenues will
surge to 24 billion yuan in 2020 from
13.96 billion yuan last year.
“More efforts are needed to meet
the growing demand for some
light rare earths, to better regulate
mining and processing, to encour-
age the import of more qualified
overseas rare earth resources and
to foster the sustainable develop-
ment of domestic resources,” a
company spokesman said.prosium (a metal used in lasers),
erbium oxide and gadolinium
oxide (used in medical imaging
and fuel cells) were up around 10
percent in early summer, Reuters
reported.
But trade was affected little. The
US government has exempted rare
earths from its tariffs on Chinese
goods.
“China’s rare earth export quota
didn’t have the desired effect on the
importing countries, especially West-
ern countries, because smuggling of
rare earths was rampant and some
export companies falsified the cus-
toms code to evade the quota and
continued to export them,” Jin Bai-
song, a retired researcher at the inter-
national trade academy, told China
Daily. Also, customers are able to buy
from other suppliers or seek their
own new sources.New research
China currently produces around
80 percent of the world’s supply of
raw rare earths. But the domestic
industry is plagued by illegal mining
and production, lack of innovation
and environmental violations.
A tectonic shift could be in the
making for the whole rare earth
industry worldwide.
A study published earlier this
month in the journal PhysicalFrom page 1
Recent moves by the government
in the sector followed in the wake of
President Xi Jinping’s visit to JL
MAG Rare-Earth Co in Ganzhou in
late May, during which he pulled
rare earths into the spotlight. The
science and technology for exploit-
ing them needed to reach a higher
level, he said.
The vision is for China to be more
self-reliant in the manufacture of
high-end products.
Rare earth metals are distributed
throughout the planet’s crust, so
they are technically not so much
rare as they are difficult to find in
concentrated amounts. The process
of extracting and refining them is
labor- and resource-intensive — and
costly — so little is produced. Few
high-end processors exist globally.
“To better utilize this strategic
resource, we need to continually
keep on top of rare earth separation
and purification,” said Mei Xinyu, a
researcher at the Chinese Academy
of International Trade and Economic
Cooperation. “As a modern industrial
country, China needs to maintain a
competitive edge in manufacturing,
not just natural resources. It needs to
gear up in the intensive field of rare
earth processing and offer more fin-
ished products.”
Seeing huge potential in the field,
the central government is pushing
to take better advantage of the coun-
try’s rare earth resources by stream-
lining markets and improving the
management of materials from
extraction to high-quality finished
commodities, industry experts and
company executives said.
“With a unique set of properties
that can make products more dura-
ble and efficient, rare earth materi-
als are critical ingredients in a wide
range of modern technologies —
new sensors, pollutant treatment
catalysts and much more — provid-
ing basic support for people’s future
needs,” said Xu Shuo, a researcher at
the Qianzhan Industry Research
Institute, who pointed to smart
homes, smart cars and magnetic
levitation as examples.
The government is plowing ahead.
In June, the country’s top economic
planner, the National Development
and Reform Commission, together
with the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology and the
Ministry of Natural Resources,
began detailed surveys in seven are-
as rich in rare earth deposits — the
Inner Mongolia and Guangxi Zhu-
ang autonomous regions and the
provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan,
Guangdong and Sichuan.
Local authorities have been asked
to provide information on issues
related to the protection and appli-
cation of the resources, according to
a report citing an NDRC circular.
The surveys will focus on indus-
trial chains, experience in resource
management, major problems and
plans for future development.
Heavy vs light
Permanent magnet materials and
products are the most widely used
forms of rare earth, representing
around 70 percent of all applica-
tions, Ganzhou Fortune Electronic
Co’s Pang said.
Heavier rare earth elements,
which are relatively abundant in
Ganzhou, account for about 5 per-
cent in mixtures with lighter ones.
These heavier metals are necessary
for the more sophisticated products.
“Compared with light rare
earths, heavy ones are more valua-
ble,” Pang said. “Light rare earth
resources are not that rare global-
ly, but heavy rare earth materials
are really scarce. And China has
the biggest heavy rare earth
reserves in the world.”
The Ganzhou-based company,
founded in 2011, now has an annual
production capacity of 2,000 tons of
high performance, sintered magnet-
ic metals — metals that are merged
in a heating process. Its products are
widely used in energy-saving
motors, new energy vehicles, infor-
mation technology, unmanned aeri-
al vehicles, medical equipment,
energy-saving household applian-
ces and high-tech trains.
The company reported a surge in
revenues of nearly 30 percent year-
on-year, hitting 130 million yuan in
2018.
China Northern Rare Earth
(Group) High-tech Co in Baotou,
Inner Mongolia, the country’s larg-
est rare earth miner and producer of
refined metals, is also gearing up to
Rare earth: Govt looks to future
Leaks in system
Rare earth exports by China fell to
3,640 tons in May from 4,329 tons in
April, according to the General
Administration of Customs. For the
first five months of this year, China
exported 19,267 tons of rare earths,
down 7.2 percent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, prices rose. The price
of neodymium (a metal used in
magnets and speakers) increased
26.5 percent in late May from $
per kilogram to $63.25 per kg. Dys-Review Letters by researchers
from three universities — the Uni-
versity of Michigan in the United
States, together with France’s Lor-
raine and the UK’s Cambridge uni-
versities — found that more
common elements could be com-
bined to make electronically use-
ful materials that could replace
some rare earths at much lower
cost in the future.
A report about the study for
newatlas.com by Michael Irving
on July 5, noted efforts by some
companies, such as Honda and
Samsung, to recycle rare earth
materials and deal with “the ever-
growing e-waste problem”. The
researchers lauded such initiatives
but suggested that “it would be
easier to just use cheaper alterna-
tives” for some applications.
Their study found that combining
elements from neighboring groups
in the Periodic Table could create
compounds with properties similar
to rare earth metals for lighting and
solar panels. Researchers were able
to produce the compounds in a thin-
film form by layering more common
elements “with atomic precision”,
Irving wrote.
He quoted Roy Clarke, one of the
study’s authors, as saying: “It’s not
viable for technology to rely on
something that’s likely to run out on
a scale of 10 to 20 years.”Yuan Hui in Hohhot and Wang
Jian in Nanchang contributed to
this story.Global
rare earth
reserves37 %18 %ChinaBrazil18 %15 %VietnamRussia6 %2 %IndiaAustralia1 %
United StatesChina* 120,
Australia 20,
United States 15,
Myanmar 5,
Russia 2,
India 1,
Brazil 1,
Burundi 1,
Thailand 1,
Vietnam 400
Malaysia 200
Others 2,Global
rare earth
production
in 2018
Unit: metric tonsUnit: percentUnit: metric tonsChina’s rare earth
exports from
2010 to 201820102011 201220132014201520162017201839,16,854 16,22,27,34,47,51,53,Inner Mongolia 58
autonomous region
Sichuan province 23
Jiangxi province 7
Fujian province 3
Shandong province 3Source: Qianzhan Industry Research Institute MUKESH MOHANAN / CHINA DAILYChina’s production in 2018aaffell to
tons in
eneral
For thee
Chinna
eartrthhs,
r.
eppricece
seed iin
reeaseed
mm $50 50
g.DDys-Yuan Hui in Hohhot and Wang
Jian in Nanchang contributed to
this story.18 %
BrazilsINA DAILYINA DAILYRare earths
at a glance- Rare earth elements are used in
a wide range of consumer and mili-
tary products, from iPhones to elec-
tric car motors, jet engines, satellites
and lasers. China is a major supplier. - Rare earth metals are a group of
17 elements. They are considered
rare because they appear in low con-
centrations in nature and are difficult
and costly to mine and process. - China has most of the world’s
processing capacity. In 2017, China
accounted for 81 percent of the
world’s rare earth production,
according to the US Geological Sur-
vey. - Few alternative suppliers are able
to compete with China, which is
home to 37 percent of global rare
earth reserves. - California’s Mountain Pass mine
is the only operating US rare earth
facility. It ships roughly 50,000 met-
ric tons of rare earth concentrates
extracted annually in California to
China for processing. Rare earths are
also mined in India, South Africa,
Canada, Australia, Estonia, Malaysia
and Brazil.
How are they used?
Rare earth elements are used in
rechargeable batteries for electric
and hybrid cars, advanced ceramics,
computers, DVD players, wind tur-
bines, catalysts for cars and oil refin-
eries, monitors, televisions, lighting,
lasers, fiber optics, superconductors
and glass polishing.
Several rare earth elements, such
as neodymium and dysprosium, are
critical to the motors used in electric
vehicles. A bright blue oxide called
YInMn Blue, which includes the rare
earth Yttrium, is used in oil paints for
artists.Military applications
Some rare earth minerals are
essential in military equipment,
including jet engines, missile gui-
dance systems, anti-missile defense
systems, satellites and lasers. Lan-
thanum, for example, is needed to
manufacture night vision devices.Who depends on Chinese supplies?
Companies such as Raytheon,
Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems in
the US all make sophisticated missil-
es that use rare earth metals in their
guidance systems and sensors. Other
companies in Europe and elsewhere
also need them.
Apple Inc uses rare earth elements
in speakers, cameras and the
so-called “haptic” engines that make
its phones vibrate. The company says
the elements are not available from
traditional recyclers because they are
used in such small amounts they
cannot be recovered.What about prices?
Prices held largely steady for
months, but export prices of an array
of rare earth elements have rallied
strongly over the last couple of
months. President Xi Jinping visited a
processing company in southern Chi-
na in May, bringing the sector into
the spotlight.
So far, the US government has
exempted rare earths from tariffs on
Chinese goods.
The price of neodymium (a metal
used in magnets and speakers)
increased 26.5 percent in late May
from $50 per kilogram to $63.
per kg. Dysprosium (a metal
used in lasers), erbium oxide
and gadolinium oxide (used in
medical imaging and fuel
cells) were up around 10
percent in early summer.— REUTERS
Batteries move down the production line at China Northern Rare
Earth (Group) High-tech Co in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.Samples of the
rare earth
metal Yttrium,
with a purity of
99.99 percent.A worker examines rare earth products at Ganzhou Fortune Electronic Co in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province.PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY