Environmental concerns are the main impetus for the creation of new rare earth mining regulations.
Rare earth metals are some of the most sought-after materials in modern manufacturing. Their unique magnetic and phosphorescent properties make them vital ingredients for producing sophisticated products like flat-screen monitors, electric car batteries, wind turbines, missiles and aerospace alloys.
However, mining the elements is environmentally hazardous. As the world's largest rare earth metal supplier, China has suffered from serious environmental degradation.
Ceng Qingshou, an elderly rice farmer living in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has already felt the wrath of a local rare earth quarry.
Waste water from the quarry, which opened last year, contaminated Ceng's rice fields, resulting in a non-existent harvest last year.
"They paid me 2,400 yuan (about 369 U.S. dollars) to compensate me for my losses last year, but what about this year, and the year after that?" Ceng said.
On a hill near Ceng's rice fields, trees were toppled to make room for the quarry. The hill now resembles the surface of the Moon, with ditches and vast holes in the ground where the trees once stood.
However, Ceng and his fellow farmers are comparatively lucky, as they at least have tap water to drink. In east China's Jiangxi Province, where rare earth mining is a prominent industry, many villagers have to use pipes to bring in drinking water from neighboring villages, as rare earth mines have poisoned their wells.
Pollution has been a significant problem for the industry since China began mining rare earth metals decades ago. The problem has been exacerbated by lax environmental standards and rampant illegal mining, which have also served to lower prices for China's rare earth exports.
China shocked the global rare earth market in the late 1990s, as feeble environmental regulations allowed rare earth mining companies to offer outrageously low prices, causing many producers outside of China to close up shop.
China, which is home to about one-third of the world's rare earth reserves, now supplies more than 90 of the global demand for rare earth metals.
China's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced tougher emission limits for rare earth mining and smelting in January in a bid to reduce the negative environmental impact of the country's mines. Emission caps for 15 types of pollutants will take effect on October 1 this year.
A new resource tax on rare earth metals was also announced in April.
Rare earth metals are some of the most sought-after materials in modern manufacturing. Their unique magnetic and phosphorescent properties make them vital ingredients for producing sophisticated products like flat-screen monitors, electric car batteries, wind turbines, missiles and aerospace alloys.
However, mining the elements is environmentally hazardous. As the world's largest rare earth metal supplier, China has suffered from serious environmental degradation.
Ceng Qingshou, an elderly rice farmer living in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has already felt the wrath of a local rare earth quarry.
Waste water from the quarry, which opened last year, contaminated Ceng's rice fields, resulting in a non-existent harvest last year.
"They paid me 2,400 yuan (about 369 U.S. dollars) to compensate me for my losses last year, but what about this year, and the year after that?" Ceng said.
On a hill near Ceng's rice fields, trees were toppled to make room for the quarry. The hill now resembles the surface of the Moon, with ditches and vast holes in the ground where the trees once stood.
However, Ceng and his fellow farmers are comparatively lucky, as they at least have tap water to drink. In east China's Jiangxi Province, where rare earth mining is a prominent industry, many villagers have to use pipes to bring in drinking water from neighboring villages, as rare earth mines have poisoned their wells.
Pollution has been a significant problem for the industry since China began mining rare earth metals decades ago. The problem has been exacerbated by lax environmental standards and rampant illegal mining, which have also served to lower prices for China's rare earth exports.
China shocked the global rare earth market in the late 1990s, as feeble environmental regulations allowed rare earth mining companies to offer outrageously low prices, causing many producers outside of China to close up shop.
China, which is home to about one-third of the world's rare earth reserves, now supplies more than 90 of the global demand for rare earth metals.
China's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced tougher emission limits for rare earth mining and smelting in January in a bid to reduce the negative environmental impact of the country's mines. Emission caps for 15 types of pollutants will take effect on October 1 this year.
A new resource tax on rare earth metals was also announced in April.
