China Halts Start of New Rare Earth Mines

Posted in Industry News on 14th March 2010

China, supplier of around 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, has recently stopped accepting applications for new mines bidding to produce materials until June 30, 2011, the Land Ministry has announced.

Following the announcement, it has also ceased any acceptance of applications for tungsten and antimony mines. Repercussions of this news meant that the respective shares of the country’s metal producers have increased sharply.

The new policy has been introduced in order to protect and effectively utilise China’s advantageous mineral resources and as a result, could help benefit producers of non-ferrous metals and steel companies. Two of the companies set to benefit most from the change are Baotou Steel Rare Earth Co. and Hunan Non Ferrous Metals Corp.

Baotou Steel currently own the largest rare earth mineral mine in China and in wake of the government announcement, have seen their prices rise by 6.5 percent. Hunan Non Ferrous are China’s biggest tungsten maker and have experienced a price growth of 1 percent.

Under the new guidelines by the Land Ministry, China plans to cap output of Tungsten metal at 80,000 tons; Antimony will be capped at 100,000 tons and rare earth minerals will have a cap of 89,200 tons for 2010.

William Rowland Ltd are rare earth metal suppliers, and if you would like to find out how we can meet your requirements, please contact us using the Quick Enquiry Form on the right-hand side of this website.

Tags: