The dual pressures of resources and the environment force China to rectify the rare earth industry

Without rare earths, today's popular IPOds, BlackBerrys, and electric vehicles and wind farms that are building a green future will probably become a fantasy. However, Liu Shengyuan does not know this. At the age of 45, he only knows that if there is no rare earth, his hometown may still be a mountain town with beautiful scenery and beautiful environment today.

Liu Shengyuan’s hometown is located in the southernmost part of Jiangxi Province, China, and is rich in ionic rare earth resources. However, in order to mine rare earths, the green forests of the past have become the sands of today. The trees have been cut down, the mountains have been hollowed out, and large and small loess piles piled up on the ground.

Every time I saw a sore mountain forest, Liu Shengyuan’s heart always felt a pity. Looking back on the past scene, he was filled with emotion: "When I was young, the town was full of trees and the river was crystal clear. The villagers often took the river directly to drink."

Liu Shengyuan said that the town began mining rare earths 20 years ago. During the rare earth mining process, a large amount of ammonium sulfate and ammonium bicarbonate are poured into the mine. These acids eventually enter rivers and streams, pollute water sources, and destroy rice fields. "In recent years, the villagers' rice has only long seedlings that do not bear ears, the whole piece is dead, and even when the particles are not collected."

He said: "Now the river in the town is no longer clear, and fish and shrimp are rare. The water source has been seriously polluted and can no longer be drunk." He said that the residents of the town can only use pipes from other places. Taking water to make drinking water, but now the pipe is getting longer and longer, it is more and more difficult to take water.

What is worrying is that Liu Shengyuan’s experience of witnessing is not a case in China.

Rare earth is a general term for a class of metals with low reserves, including 17 chemical elements, which are widely used in cutting-edge technology and military fields. With the rapid development of high-tech industries in recent years, the global demand for and consumption of rare earths has grown rapidly. The vast majority of the world's rare earths are produced in China, and China has the saying of “Nanzhang Prefecture and Beitoutou”.

Li Guoqing, director of the Bureau of Mine Management of Jiangxi Province, said: "In the mid-to-late 1980s, under the influence of the mistaken idea of ​​'large mines opening, small mines releasing, and fast water flow', the rare earths in Ganzhou were caught in indiscriminate mining and disorder. The chaotic situation of competition is almost mine in counties and counties, and there are 1,035 mines with mining licenses at the highest peak."

"Because of the backwardness of technology and ideas, many mining activities 'half and half thrown' are not only a serious waste of resources, but also cause great damage to the local ecological environment. After a few months in the green hills, they are devastated and loess," Li said.

Liu Wei, deputy mayor of Ganzhou City, said: “The mining of rare earth mines in Chenzhou has experienced three processes from pool leaching to heap leaching to in situ leaching. To protect the environment and improve resource utilization, since 2003, Ganzhou City has stopped. The pool leaching process with a comprehensive recovery rate of less than 50%, in 2007, completely stopped the heap leaching process with a recovery rate of less than 70%, and actively explored and used all the in-situ leaching processes with a recovery rate of over 80%."

Although the rare earth mining process continues to improve, industry experts say that the pollution and environmental damage caused by rare earth mining cannot be ignored. Even if the mining process of rare earth ore is improved, it is impossible to avoid damage to the environment, and once the surface vegetation in the mining area is destroyed, recovery is very difficult.

In order to protect rare earth resources, prevent over-exploitation of this non-renewable resource and serious damage to the environment through indiscriminate exploitation, China stopped issuing new rare earth mining licenses in 2006 and implemented a mandatory plan for rare earth mining. In terms of exports, China began to implement the export quota licensing system for rare earth products in 1998, and included rare earth raw materials in the catalogue of prohibited commodities for processing trade.

In addition to controlling rare earth export quotas and reducing annual mining of rare earths, China will gradually strengthen the concentration of the rare earth industry. At the beginning of September, the State Council officially issued the "Opinions on Promoting Mergers and Acquisitions of Enterprises", and for the first time listed rare earths as a list of mergers and acquisitions in key industries.

However, the Chinese government's regulation and control measures for the rare earth industry have caused great controversy abroad. Some countries even accuse China of restricting the exploitation and export of rare earths as monopoly resources, which is “extremely destructive” to other countries in the world, and requires China to relax the rare earth industry. control.

In response to such doubts, China's Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said recently that China's restrictions on rare earth industries are mainly due to the need for environmental protection, and it is "a last resort." China's rare earth exports should not only promote economic development, but also consider comprehensive factors such as environmental protection and national security.

Zhang Anwen, deputy secretary-general of the China Rare Earth Society, said that from the current information on foreign rare earth resources exploration, China's rare earth resource reserves have been significantly lower than the current proportion in society. “If calculated on the basis of per capita resources, China is already a country with relatively rare rare earth resources.”

Zhao Zengqi, dean of the Baotou Steel Rare Earth Research Institute, said: "The proportion of rare earth resources in China is small, but it supports most of the global consumer demand. It is obviously unsustainable and unfair in the long run." Rare earth is coming to any country. Said to be strategic resources, China must protect rare earth resources.

According to a report in the United States entitled "Rare Earth Elements - Global Supply Chain", in 2009, China's rare earth reserves were 36 million tons, accounting for 36% of the world; production was 120,000 tons, accounting for 97% of world production. . In stark contrast, the US rare earth reserves in 2009 were 13 million tons, accounting for 13% of the world, while production was zero; Russia's reserves were 19 million tons, accounting for 19% of the world, with zero production; Australia's reserves were 5.4 million. Tons, the output is zero.

Zhao Zengqi said that China's rare earth production exceeded the United States in 1986. At that time, the domestic rare earth industry had low barriers to entry, overcapacity, disorderly competition, and environmental protection costs and labor costs were far lower than those of foreign countries. As a result, the price of rare earths was too low, and most countries stopped the mining of rare earths. Chinese imports. However, as the price of rare earths rises, it is now possible to achieve a profit balance by restarting rare earth mining abroad.

"In the long run, it is a general trend to increase the price of rare earth products and increase the supply of resources outside China." Zhao Zengqi said.

Wang Caifeng, deputy inspector of the China National Rare Earth Experts, Department of Materials and Information Technology, said that in the future, the global demand for rare earths will continue to develop rapidly and steadily, and China's rare earth industry must seek long-term sustainable development.

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