China aims to crack down on illegal mining
Effort aimed at stopping the export of rare minerals used in a variety of products
China has launched a five-month crackdown against the illegal mining and exporting of its rare earths, chinanews.com reported on Monday.
Staring on October 10 and lasting until March 31, the Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Environmental Protection along with eight other ministries will work together to investigate and punish illegal miners and smugglers of the highly coveted elements.
The effort will be supervised by the provincial and city governments.
The illegal mining, processing and trading of the mineral products has led to a “black interest chain”, the report said.
Despite previous campaigns to streamline the rare earth industry by giving control to state-owned mining companies and setting production quotas on a small number of authorised firms, illegal mining, pollution and smuggling of the 17 elements in the rare earth category in China remain ubiquitous, leading to a plunge in prices.
Rare earths are used in a variety of industrial, military and hi-tech products, from wind turbines to hybrid car batteries to iPhones. China maintains that it has 23 per cent of the world’s rare earth reserves, but foreign estimates say it has up to 40 per cent. China’s rare earth industry meets more than 90 per cent of the global demand.