The Recycling Of Strategically Advantageous Metals Of China Enjoys A Brilliant Future

The Recycling Of Strategically Advantageous Metals Of China Enjoys A Brilliant Future

I. Current situation of the recycling of strategically advantageous metals of China

(1) The recycling of tungsten

According to the statistics, among the supply of our tungsten raw material, 12% comes from waste tungsten and the rest 88% comes from primary tungsten ore. Waste tungsten mainly refers to solid waste residue generated during the production of tungsten products and wastes of final consumption, such as discarded hard alloy, tungsten materials, alloy steel, tungsten contact material and chemical catalyst.

In China, tungsten regeneration industry has a relatively late start, so we have a relatively low recycling rate of waste tungsten. In some developed countries, recycling rate of waste tungsten is as high as over 30%; China also suffers from a relatively small scope of tungsten recycling, which is mainly achievable only in hard alloy and chemical catalyst fields. Reusing of recycled tungsten is mainly achievable only in alloy and sodium tungstate fields. In addition, some recycling methods cause severe secondary pollutions. Therefore, we are in urgent need of a new path that combines environmental protection and efficient material using to consolidate the development of low-cost, high-quality, high-grade and high-purity tungsten recycling methods, thus improving comprehensive recycling rate of tungsten and valuable metals and turning resource advantage into technical advantage.

In China, recycling of tungsten mainly concentrates in over 100 enterprises covering 12 counties and cities of 8 provinces, with annual processing capacity of nearly 40000 tons. Although there is great potential both in both the recycling of waste hard alloy, tungsten heavy alloy, tungsten material, grinding material, tungsten smelting slag and spent petrochemical catalyst, and in the comprehensive recycling of tungsten-contained tailings, we still face problems such as low centralization of waste tungsten recycling, i.e. companies that deal with waste tungsten recycling are small and decentralized, non-standardized operation in waste tungsten circulation fields and process technical problems and environmental protection.

Distributing centers of waste tungsten are mainly Qinghe County of Hebei, Anhua County of Hunan and Ganzhou City of Jiangxi. Qinghe County of Hebei is the biggest distribution center in China for waste hard alloy and waste tungsten, molybdenum, nickel and titanium and other rare metals. It is also one of the most important production bases for recycled hard alloy in China. As of the end of 2018, there had been over 50 companies that are engaged in waste tungsten production and operation in Qinghe County, which generated annual operation income of RMB 2 billion and paid tax of RMB 18 million. An industrial chain involving waste tungsten recycling, reusing and production and operation has been completed in the county, which has become one of the four pillar industries in the county. Qinghe County has won the reputation of demonstration base of “city of mineral” recognized by National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance.

Anhua County of Hunan accounts for 15% worldwide in terms of recycling volume of waste tungsten worldwide, and it accounts for 50%-60% of domestic waste tungsten market. Among all the three distribution centes for tungsten-contained waste material, Anhua Count is the one that is equipped with the most comprehensive supply and demand network and enjoys the highest transaction volume; Gaoming Circular Economy Industrial Park of Anhua County is the biggest recycling and processing base for grinding material in China.

Currently, companies for recycled tungsten comprehensive reusing that enjoy big scale, influential reputation and high market share in China are mainly GEM Company Ltd., Hunan Jinyuan New Material Company Ltd., Hunan Shuntai Tungsten Company Ltd., Hunan Litian High-tech Material Company Ltd. and Hunan Jinxin New Material Company Ltd..

(2) Recycling of rare earth

According to statistics, 9% of rare earth material supply in China comes from recycling and 86% comes from rare earth ore.

Neodymium iron boron accounts for the vast majority of rare earth waste material sources in China. Neodymium iron boron waste material mainly comes from the waste generated during material preparation and waste products eliminated due to upgrading. Neodymium iron boron alloy is a kind of rare-earth permanent magnet with outstanding performance. About 30% waste material will be generated during production process and utilizing. Neodymium iron boron recycling is an effective way to eliminate crisis in key rare earth elements supplying and to retain our rare earth advantages around the world.

At present, there are about 30 companies that are engaged in neodymium iron boron waste material treatment. Among them, there are only 4 companies that achieve rare earth oxide output of over 1100 tons annually, i.e. Jiangsu South Permanent Magnetics Co., Ltd., Ganzhou Bulaite New Resouces Co., Ltd., Xinfeng County Baogang Xinli Rare Earth Co., Ltd. and Ji’an Xintai Technology Co., Ltd.. The four leading companies respectively account for about 8% of market share, which is not a high number in industrial concentration. Additionally, now we face a problem of excessive capacity of waste neodymium iron boron processing, and the ratio of raw material to capacity is about 1:5.

In 2018, waste neodymium iron boron recycling companies achieved recycled volume of rare earth oxide of 18000 tons, 90% of which came from production waste of neodymium iron boron companies and 10% of which came from electronics recycling. Among all the rare earth oxide, PR ND Oxide is 15000 tons, dysprosium oxide is 460 tons, terbium oxide is 70 tons, gadolinium oxide is 1000 tons and holmium oxide is 120 tons.

In 2019, the output of rare earth oxide coming from recycled neodymium iron boron is estimated to be 20000 tons, including PR ND Oxide of 16000 tons, dysprosium oxide of 400 tons and terbium oxide of 60 tons.

(3) Recycling of antimony

According to statistics, 5% of rare earth material supply in China comes from recycling and 95% comes from primary antimony ore.

After the price of antimony hit a new high in 2011, domestic lead and zinc and gold smelting plants started to attach importance to comprehensive recycling and reusing of antimony.

Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead and Jinli Gold & Lead respectively achieved annual capacity of antimony oxide of 1800 tons and 4000 tons. According to information, antimony production process of Yuguang Gold & Lead is as follows: anode mud generated by lead refinery is sent to precious metal smelter for extracting gold and silver; antimony bismuth slag generated in the course is sent to comprehensive recycling plant for antimony and bismuth production. Part of antimony is processed into antimony white for market sale, and the other part of antimony is processed into low-antimony alloy together with zinc for miner’s lamp plants to work as plate raw materials.

Two gold producing companies, Shandong Humon Co., Ltd. and Inner Mongolia Chifeng Gold, achieved annual output of antimony ingot of over 1000 tons.

In March, 2020, Xiangyang Yuanrui Renewable Resources Co., Ltd. issued an environment impact assessment report claiming that the company planned to invest RMB 100 million to construct a comprehensive tin-antimony resource utilizing and producing line that aims to achieve annual output of metal tin of 6000 tons and metal antimony of 4000 tons, and antimony-lead alloy by-products of 10000 tons.

II. Developing trend of recycling of strategically advantageous metals in China

(1) Improved industrial concentration in recycling of strategically advantageous metals

The domestic company, GEM, by learning from international leading company, Umicore, has been making steady development in recent years. Now GEM has grown into a leading company in China in tungsten-cobalt-contained hard alloy recycling industry.

On June, 20, 2019, shareholder of Ji’an Xintai Technology Co., Ltd., Liu Weihua and his persons acting in concert entered into Acquiring Intent Agreement with Jiangsu Huahong Technology Co., Ltd., a listed company. This Agreement specifies that Huahong Technology plans to buy 100% equity of Xintai Technology at the price of RMB 810 million, which will make Huahong Technology the leading company in China in rare earth recycling. Xintai Technology specializes in comprehensive utilizing of waste rare earth material, i.e. using waste neodymium iron boron material and waste fluorescent powder to produce high-purity rare earth oxide. In the meantime, Xintai Technology produces rare earth permanent magnetic material in the name of its affiliated company, Zhonghang New Materials. Xintai Technology and its affiliated company are given the qualification for comprehensively utilizing 9800 tons of waste neodymium iron boron and 1000 tons of waste fluorescent powder.

(2) Improved market influence by renewed strategically advantageous metal

Gradual improving of recycling rate of our strategically advantageous metal has made renewed strategically advantageous metal more and more influential to market supply and price because they are advantageous in price. Renewed strategically advantageous metals have grown into a force that deserves more attention from any one market stakeholder; related companies have also attached more importance to the market and technical development of renewed strategically advantageous metals.

III. Suggestions for developing recycling of strategically advantageous metals in China

(1) Our country and companies should highly value the recycling of strategically advantageous metals

As early as May, 2014, MIIT issued Notice on Eliminating and Standardizing Rare Earth Resource Recycling and Utilizing Projects, which required that we fully realize the importance and urgency of strengthening the management on rare earth recycling projects; eliminating rare earth resource recycling and utilizing projects; standardizing the management on rare earth resource recycling and utilizing projects; strengthening the management on scheme of rare earth resource recycling and utilizing.

In future, our country should issue more policies and measures to encourage the recycling and utilizing of waste strategically advantageous metals. In the meantime, companies should further consolidate the awareness of importance of recycling strategically advantageous metals and regard it as one important path to high-quality development.

(2) To include the recycling of strategically advantageous metals into the 14th Five-Year Plan

We suggest that industry associations of tungsten, antimony and rare earth include the improving of recycling rate of waste strategically advantageous metals into the 14th Five-Year Plan as indicators, so as to guide renewable materials companies to a development path that is healthy, sustainable and with high quality. Based on the performance so far, we suggest that related associations set a goal that antimony recycling rate indicator achieves 10%, rare earth recycling rate indicator achieves 20% and tungsten recycling rate indicator achieves 30%, as of the year of 2025.

(3) To increase investment in R&D of technologies for recycling strategically advantageous metals

In recent years, our recycling technologies for strategically advantageous metals have made steady progress. For instance, Dr. Hejie from Metal Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences brought up the novel idea of “rare earth acid-free self-assembly dissolution” of neodymium iron boron, which lays a solid foundation for neodymium iron boron recycling and utilizing and realizes selective extraction of all rare earth elements from neodymium iron boron with “one-step” procedure within just several minutes. The extraction rate is more than 97%. Compared to the method of “hydrochloric acid optimal solution”, the aforesaid method prevents the iron and boron in the neodymium iron boron from being roasted, oxidized and leached by acid together with rare earth. This not only saves technological process and cycle and greatly reduces the using of acid and emission of waste fluid but also effectively improves the recycling rate of rare earth. It is a more economical and eco-friendly method.

There still exists a disparity between our R&D investment and that of developed foreign countries and companies. In future, our country and companies should make persistent efforts in developing recycling technologies for strategically advantageous metals, so as to consolidate and extend our leading position in full industry chain of strategically advantageous metals.