Rare earth policy

China attaches great importance to the protection of rare earths, and has always insisted on protecting the environment and saving resources in the field of rare earth protection. Insist on controlling the total amount and optimizing the stock. Insist on giving consideration to both domestic and international markets and resources. Adhere to the coordination with local economic and social development. Specifically: 1. Effective protection and rational utilization of resources. 2. Promote the coordinated development of rare earth utilization and environment. 3. Protection policies to promote technological progress and industrial upgrading. The following is a concrete interpretation of the rare earth policy.

1. Effective protection and rational utilization of resources

As a non-renewable natural resource, rare earth must be effectively protected and reasonably utilized. Over the years, China has vigorously carried out protective mining of rare earths to promote the sustainable utilization of resources.

China strongly supports the development of circular economy and actively carries out the recycling of rare earth secondary resources. Encourage the development of special processes, technologies and equipment for the collection, treatment, separation and purification of waste rare earth materials, support the establishment of a specialized comprehensive recovery base for rare earth materials, and recover secondary rare earth resources such as molten salt, slag, waste rare earth permanent magnet waste and waste permanent magnet motors, waste nickel-hydrogen batteries, waste rare earth fluorescent lamps, waste rare earth catalysts, waste rare earth polishing powder and other waste components containing rare earth.

2. Promote the coordinated development of rare earth utilization and environment.

In recent years, in order to protect the environment, China has continuously strengthened and improved the management of high energy consumption, high pollution and resource products and related industries. In the field of rare earth, the state has taken a series of effective measures to promote the coordinated development of rare earth development and utilization and ecological environment, and will never sacrifice the environment for the development of rare earth industry.

Carry out special environmental rectification of rare earth industry. In the special rectification, governments at all levels explicitly require existing rare earth enterprises to speed up the construction of environmental protection facilities, meet the discharge standards and implement cleaner production, otherwise they will stop production according to law, and enterprises that fail to meet the standards within a time limit must be resolutely banned. Since 20 1 1, the state has carried out environmental verification work for all rare earth mines, smelting separation and metal production enterprises, and severely investigated and dealt with environmental pollution behaviors of rare earth enterprises. Two batches of ***56 enterprises that meet the environmental protection requirements have been announced successively, prompting the rare earth industry and enterprises to invest more than 4 billion yuan in environmental protection rectification and technical upgrading, and the environmental protection level of the rare earth industry has been significantly improved. Enterprises with serious environmental pollution, outstanding environmental safety hazards, strong public reaction and non-compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations shall be punished by taking measures such as listing supervision and deadline management according to law. Governments at all levels will devote special efforts to the treatment of ecological environment damage, tailings and waste residue pollution formed in history.

3. Promote technological progress and industrial upgrading.

China attaches great importance to improving the level of scientific development and application technology of rare earths, strives to create a policy environment, accelerates the technological progress and industrial upgrading of rare earths, and strives to break through the bottleneck of resources and environment to provide technical support for the sustainable development of rare earths.

The state encourages technological innovation in the rare earth industry. In the Outline of National Medium and Long-term Scientific and Technological Development Plan (2006-2020), rare earth technology is listed as the key support direction. The state supports basic research on rare earths, research on cutting-edge technologies and research, development and popularization of key industrial technologies, and promotes the establishment of a technological innovation system with enterprises as the main body, market as the guidance and Industry-University-Research as the combination. Actively develop environmentally friendly, advanced and applicable rare earth mining technology, efficient mining technology under complex geological conditions, and comprehensive recovery technology of associated resources to improve the level of resource recovery and recycling. Vigorously organize the research and development of advanced technologies such as low-carbon and low-salt emission, preparation of ultra-high purity products, membrane separation, recovery and utilization of associated thorium resources, recovery and treatment of tail gas fluorine and sulfur, recycling of chemical raw materials, and production automation control. So as to realize efficient and clean smelting and separation of rare earth. Guide rare earth production and application enterprises, research institutes and institutions of higher learning, and vigorously develop rare earth deep processing and new material application technology. Vigorously cultivate rare earth scientific and technological talents, strengthen intellectual property protection and technical standards construction, and create favorable conditions for the development of rare earth technology.