Minmetals Chamber of Commerce President: Chinese companies can go out and develop rare earth resources

Xu Xu, president of the China Minmetals Chemicals Import & Export Chamber of Commerce (hereinafter referred to as “Minmetals Chamber of Commerce”), suggested yesterday that other countries with rare earth resources should jointly develop rare earth resources with Chinese companies.

Xu Xu made the remarks on the 9th meeting of the "China Hercynian Rare Earth Industry Technical Achievement Matchmaking Meeting" held in Longyan City, Fujian Province on the 9th. On behalf of China's rare earth industry, he called on countries that also have rare earth resources to use China's more mature smelting and separation technologies to jointly develop rare earth resources outside China, cooperate with the global market, and jointly promote the sustainable development of the global rare earth industry.

He also said that China's rare earth industry also hopes to work with foreign development companies to jointly conduct research and development on rare earth environmental protection and application technologies.

Xu Xu said that it is undeniable that China's rare earth production has a large advantage in the world, but the development of the rare earth industry is still full of challenges - not only poses a challenge to the environmental protection of the reserve country, but also very serious in terms of application technology, research and development, etc. .

“Given the limited and non-renewable nature of rare earth resources, each country should be prepared for safety.” Xu Xu believes that it is imperative to promote the diversification of global rare earth supply and ensure the stable operation of the global rare earth market.

He quoted data released by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2006 saying that as of 2005, China's proved rare earth reserves stood at 8.731 million tons (calculated as rare earth oxides), and its resources amounted to 67.8 million tons, accounting for about 55% of the world's total.

However, according to data from the US Geological Survey, by the end of 2009, China’s rare earth reserves had fallen to 36 million tons, accounting for only 36% of the world’s proven reserves.

Despite the alarming decline in China's rare earth reserves over the past five years, 97% of the global rare earth market is still controlled by China. In addition to the financial crisis in 2009, China's exports of rare earth products have remained stable, and export prices have steadily increased. Exports are shifting from low value-added to high value-added.

According to statistics of the General Administration of Customs, from 2001 to 2009, China’s export volume of rare earths was 60038 tons, 58806 tons, 73522 tons, 69703 tons, 65198 tons, 66409 tons, 54421 tons, 54963 tons, and 43913 tons respectively. Compared with 2001 in September 2010, China's rare earth export unit price per tonne has increased by approximately twice.

At present, the global reserves of rare earth proved mainly in China, the United States, Russia, Australia, Brazil, India and other countries. Xu Xu disclosed a set of data: The proven reserves of rare earths in the United States and Russia were 13 million tons and 19 million tons last year, which accounted for 13% and 19% of the world's total, respectively, but the output was 0; India's proven reserves of rare earth last year It is 3.1 million tons, accounting for 3% of the world's total, and the output is 2.7 million tons, accounting for 2% of the world's total.

“It can be seen that the rare earth resources are not unique to China.” Xu Xu said, “The non-renewability of rare earth resources determines that we cannot adopt the practice of eating grain. We must increase the research of rare earth recycling technologies to maximize the utilization of rare earths. , is to ensure the healthy development of China and even the world's rare earth industry."

He said that as an industry organization, Minmetals will advise the government to continue to maintain the stability of the rare earth policy.

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