The state officially promulgates rare earth industry policy

China's rare earth resource integration has taken another major step. Last weekend, the State Council issued a total of 22 articles on "Several Opinions on Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Rare Earth Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "Rare Earth" Article 22), which systematically proposes resource integration, import and export transformation of rare earth industries in the next few years. The various measures of strategic reserves mark the official release of the most authoritative and most comprehensive national industrial policy concerning the development of the rare earth industry that has received much attention from the industry.

Experts in the industry analyzed and interpreted the rare earth “22 countries”. “The 22 countries” proposed that China will use a period of 1 to 2 years to basically form a rare-earth industry pattern dominated by large-scale enterprises; another three years or so, form a reasonable development, orderly production, efficient use, advanced technology, and intensive The sustainable development of the rare earth industry will continue.

According to reports, at present, most of the light rare earth resources in northern China have been concentrated in Baotou Steel Rare Earth Company, and the ionic rare earths in the south are still scattered. The goal of the "National 22 Article" is that after one to two years, the top three industrial groups in the southern ion-based rare earth industry will have an industry concentration of more than 80%. The ionic rare earth resources in the south are mainly concentrated in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province. This year, the rare earth mining certificate of Ganzhou, Jiangxi, will continue to be reduced to 4 on the basis of the current 46. After the resources are concentrated, a rare earth mining group will be established. In the northern region, light rare earths will be further integrated into Baotou Steel's rare earth franchise. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region government will promote Baotou Steel's rare earths to fully realize rare earth franchise this year.

The total amount of rare earth smelting and separation will also be strictly controlled. The "State 22" pointed out that during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, China will stop approving the construction of a new rare earth smelting and separation project and prohibit the expansion of production scale of existing projects. The industry analysts believe that the Minmetals Group's production capacity accounts for 80% of the southern market, its leading position is basically determined, and the remaining 2 to 3 leading enterprises will be from Chinalco, China Nonferrous Metals, Guangdong Nonferrous Metals, Xiamen Tungsten Industry, and Jiangxi Copper The competition among several companies in the industry depends on the speed with which these companies acquire resources and develop processing technologies.

At the same time, the country’s export control of rare earths is also more stringent. "State 22" for the first time will be rare earth metal, oxides, salts and rare earth ferroalloy primary products such as exports of rare earth into rare earth export quotas within the scope of control. At the same time, the rare earth resources tax will be substantially increased again, which means that China will not drastically reduce export quotas in a short period of time, but it can increase the value of rare earths in the country by increasing taxes. Compared with direct reduction of export quotas, raising resource taxes can avoid international trade disputes.

In addition, the "State 22" also explicitly requested the establishment of a rare earth strategic reserve system for the first time. In addition to physical reserves, a portion of rare earth mines sealed up was also included in the reserve plan. It is estimated that some of the mining areas in Baotou and Zhangzhou, as well as newly discovered rare earth mining areas in Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan and other places, will be included in the resources reserved for the national reserves.