THE government will issue a second batch of rare earth export quotas later this year, but the total volume for 2011 has yet to be decided, China Securities Journal said, quoting Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming.
Chen said the decision on how much would be adjusted compared with last year was now in the last stage of research.
China announced at the end of last year that it would cut quotas for the first half of the year by 35 percent, saying rampant and unregulated production over the past few years had caused significant environmental problems.
It also said it would crack down on illegal extraction and trade in rare earth metals, which amounted to about 10,000 tones of output last year, according to some estimates.
Leading producer Molycorp Inc. said last week that it expected full-year exports from China to be down 21 percent compared with last year.
With one-third of the world s reserves of rare earth, China produces around 97 percent of total global supplies of the elements, which are used in wind turbines, defense technologies and batteries for mobile phones and laptop computers.
It has been trying to impose more discipline over the sector and aims to build a strategic stockpile.(SD-Agencies)
