Rare earth-rich Inner Mongolia becomes leading player on intl market

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 06, 2003

Rare earth-rich Inner Mongolia becomes leading player on intl market

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North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has become a world leading rare-earth producer and an influential market player which has monopolized over half of the world's production, a major Chinese rare-earth company official said.

Inner Mongolia, an important rare earth base in China, boasts 50 percent of the total industrial reserves of rare earth in the world and 70 percent of the total in China.

According to Lin Donglu, chairman of the Baotou Steel Group and the Inner Mongolia Rare Earth Group, after 40 years of development, Inner Mongolia now has an annual production capacity of rare earth concentrates of 200,000 tons, a processing capacity of 110,000 tons, and rare earth separation capacity of 65,000 tons.

Lin said the region is known for its rich rare-earth resources and Baotou city in the region has most of the resources.

The use of "rare earth", which contains 17 elements, can improve or upgrade the quality of other industrial raw materials, and has been widely used in the fields of electronics, mechanics, metallurgy, petrochemical and environmental protection.

A year earlier, Inner Mongolia announced a plan to build the country's "Rare-Earth Valley" in Baotou city, the largest rare-earth mining area where the proven rare-earth deposits account for54 percent of the world's total. In 2001, the output of rare-earth products in Baotou reached 46,600 tons, or 51 percent of the world's total.

The "Rare-Earth Valley" is expected to be a production and development base with global influence within 10-15 years. By 2010,the 50-sq-km valley is expected to generate gross industrial output of 42.4 billion yuan (5.11 billion US dollars), of which more than half will be generated by the rare-earth industry, from basic raw material production to the manufacturing of integrated products.

Early last year, the government invested 60 million yuan (7.23 million US dollars) in the development of rare-earth materials and180 million yuan (21.7 million US dollars) in the construction of a 28-story Rare-Earth Plaza in Baotou.

The region sold 47,200 tons of rare earth concentrates in 2002.

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