BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities in east China's Jiangxi Province will launch a new round of actions to crack down on illegal rare earth production, smelting and trade activities from September 2018 to January 2019, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday.
The new round of crackdown on illegal rare earth operations and the inspections of rare earth enterprises will boost the prices of the rare earths, especially ion-type rare earths, in the short term. In addition, downstream demand is expected to improve in the fourth quarter and prices of praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium are expected to rise steadily, said industry insiders.
Meanwhile, 123 rare earth separation and smelting enterprises and trading companies in Jiangxi Province will be inspected by the local authorities, of which 52 will be especially inspected.
Jiangxi, as the ion-type rare earth mineral concentration area, occupies about 30 percent of the national heavy rare earth reserves. In 2018, it has gained the quota of 12,900 metric tons (tonnes) in rare earth production, nearly 50 percent of the rare earth mining plan in southern China. The special crackdown shows the authorities' determination, which is expected to boost the prices of heavy rare earth products, according to the ruidow.com, a rare metal e-commerce platform. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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