Hunan to Set up a Governmentcontrolled Rare Earth Group

On August 22, a reporter with chinanews.com saw on the website of Hunan Provincial Development and Reform Commission that as the 12th Five-year Plan on Hunan’s Rare Earth Industry was officially released, Hunan Rare Earth Industry Group, which is the center of attention, has taken shape.

According to the 12th Five-year Planning for Hunan’s Rare Earth Industry, Hunan Rare Earth Industry Group, a government-controlled state-of-the-art rare earth enterprise, will be set up to integrated the province’s rare earth resources, foster leading enterprises in Hunan’s rare earth industry, and establish a development platform for the industry.

The Plan shows that rare earth ore in Hunan Province is divided into heavy rare earth ore,light rare earth ore (monazite) and ion adsorption type rare earth ore. Reserves of the latter two are abundant.

As of the end of 2010, a total of 36 rare earth deposits had been discovered in Hunan. According to Plan of Hunan Province on Rare Earth Ore Exploration (2010-2015), there are 1,305,000 tons of potential reserves of rare earth ore in the province. At present, there is only one rare earth mining enterprise in Hunan- Jianghua Yao Autonomous County Rare Mine, specializing in ion adsorption type rare earth ore.

Since the 11th Five-year Plan period, Hunan Province’s rare earth industry chain has been extending. Significant progress has been made in mining, separation, smelting and material processing, and deep processing capacity keeps improving. A wide variety of products is evolving gradually towards high-tech application with high added value.

In the Plan, it is mentioned that in light of the development direction of rare earth and the present situation of Hunan’s rare earth industry,during the 12th Five-year Plan period, key efforts will be made to press ahead with four major projects, including rare earth project for new energy and materials industries, rare earth resource processing and utilization project, resource exploration and exploitation project, and relevant industry upgrade project. With a total investment of 10 billion yuan, the four projects will yield in annual sales revenue of more than 40 billion yuan.

The Plan also disclosed that in accordance with relevant requirements, Hunan Rare Earth Industry Group, a government-controlled stateof-the-art rare earth enterprise, will be set up to turn the rare earth industry into a strategic emerging industry in Hunan Province.

The company’s main tasks are to set up a local rare earth enterprise group in Hunan, with the government playing a dominant role, and introduce central enterprises and private enterprises with solid strength as strategic partners to conduct industry integration and layout optimization for rare earth enterprises in the province, foster a leading enterprise in the industry,turn it into a master platform for Hunan’s rare earth industry, and support it to take part in surveying and prospecting by law and obtain prospecting and mining rights by law, and de-velop comprehensive utilization projects for rare earth resources.

In addition, to straighten out working mechanism, Hunan will strengthen coordination in the province, establish provincial joint conference system for rare metals, set up the provincial rare earth office, step up interdepartmental coordination, and form a scientific, smooth, and powerful management system for the industry.Meanwhile, the provincial rare earth industry association will be set up to provide highquality and distinctive services for member units in policy suggestion, price coordination,industry discipline, marketing and information exchange.

In addition, the Plan pointed out that Hunan Provincial Government supports the group company to earn prospecting and mining rights by law, develop and utilize rare earth resources in an orderly manner, strengthen environmental protection, and promote order in the rare earth market. Eventually, it will form a work system for rare earth smelting, separation and operation, characterized by unified mining, unified beneficiation, unified smelting, separation, and unified operation and management, to spur the development of relevant application industry,and promote the healthy sustainable development of Hunan’s rare earth industry.