Not long ago, the news that the Ministry of Land and Resources decided to set up the first batch of state-planned rare earth mines directly confirmed the "second stage" theory. Industry experts said that at present, the importance of domestic rare earth resources has begun to rise to the "national" level. However, due to the scattered resources in various places, especially in the south, it is difficult to control the stubborn disease of uneven exploitation.
It is understood that the first batch of state-planned rare earth mines have settled in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, including exploration area, mining area and metallogenic prospect area * *1/block, with a total area of more than 2,500 square kilometers, and the predicted rare earth prospect resources are about 760,000 tons.
For the "finalization" of the first batch of planning areas in Ganzhou, the person in charge of the Department of Mineral Development and Management of the Ministry of Land and Resources said that the selection was based on comprehensive factors such as the importance of resources, geological characteristics and production conditions. Ganzhou, known as the "rare earth capital", has most of the ionic medium and heavy rare earth resources in China, and its output accounts for about 70% of the national medium and heavy rare earth resources.
In fact, Ganzhou is only a shadow of China's rare earth resources. China is the largest rare earth resource and producer in the world, accounting for more than one third of the world's proven reserves, but its trade volume accounts for more than 90% of the global trade volume. However, under the "continuous" supply provided by China to the world, developed countries such as the United States and Japan have begun to "contract". Smart Japanese introduced the strategic reserve system of rare minerals as early as the 1980s. It is said that Japan's current stocks are enough for more than 20 years. American rare earth reserves account for 13% of the world, but the output in 2009 was zero; Russia's reserves account for 19% of the world, but its output only meets the needs of domestic enterprises.
At the same time of strategic reserve abroad, domestic rare earth resources have also been paid more and more attention. In June last year, 5438+065438+ 10, the Ministry of Commerce issued an announcement that "the state will exercise strict supervision over rare earth export enterprises." In addition, there are more and more rumors such as launching the national strategic reserve plan for rare earth resources.
Experts in the industry said that the establishment of the first batch of rare earth mines planned by the state in Ganzhou is not only conducive to controlling the development intensity of rare earth dominant minerals and improving the macro-control ability of rare earth and iron ore resources, but also a "consistent policy" for the state to attach importance to rare earth resources.
Significance, curb indiscriminate mining, find out the "family"
Behind the rich resources is the chaos of "disorderly exploitation" by different enterprises. Take quannan county, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province as an example. There are many mineral resources such as tungsten, tin, manganese, zirconium, hafnium and rare earth in China. People began to mine rare earth minerals in Quannan more than 20 years ago. Since 2006, there have been nearly 100 illegal mining sites of rare earth minerals in the county. There are dozens of mines in Beitou Town, quannan county alone.
Li Guoqing, director of Ganzhou Mining Management Bureau, Jiangxi Province, said that since the middle and late 1980s, under the influence of the idea of "big mines open, small mines open, and the water flows fast", Ganzhou rare earth resources have fallen into a chaotic situation of indiscriminate mining and disorderly competition, almost being mined by counties and counties, with 65,438+0,035 mines with mining licenses at peak.
Some areas in northern Guangdong are also one of the main rare earth producing areas, and Longchuan County is located in the hinterland of the third largest rare earth producing area in China. Since 2005, driven by high profits, the problem of illegal exploitation of rare earth resources in this county has been puzzling the local area, although it has been repeatedly banned after several years of strong rectification.
On the one hand, it is the snapping up of mine sites, and on the other hand, it is the crazy smuggling and trading of rare earths in China. China exported rare earth resources cheaply at the price of "Chinese cabbage", which led to a sharp decline in resource reserves, which also attracted great attention at the national level. Relevant statistics show that the total control index of rare earth mining in China in 20 10 is 89,200 tons, but the actual smelting and separation capacity of rare earth has exceeded 200,000 tons. In addition, separating rare earth alloys to extract rare earth is becoming the main way for China to lose rare earth overseas. Some experts predict that China smuggled about 20,000 tons of rare earths every year.
Xu Guangxian, an academician of China Academy of Sciences who is known as the "father of rare earths", pointed out that all the five southern provinces of China have very precious medium and heavy rare earths. Industrial reserve reached 1.5 million tons, but more than 900,000 tons were mined, leaving only 600,000 tons. "According to the current mining speed, 10 will be mined."
Therefore, delineating the national planned mining areas of rare earth and iron ore is conducive to "finding out the resources". Wang Caifeng, deputy inspector of the Raw Materials Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, who participated in the expert review meeting on the establishment of the first batch of rare earth national planned mining areas, said that the purpose of setting up national planned mining areas is to enable the country to grasp the changes of resource reserves more timely and accurately and promote the sustainable development of resources.
The decentralized planning of the problem resource "special zone" is difficult to treat for a while.
In China, Baotou mixed rare earth mine, southern ionic rare earth mine and Sichuan bastnaesite are the three major rare earth resources producing areas in China. The "Inner Mongolia model" formed in the north is generally led by several companies to control the source of mining and control; However, due to the scattered producing areas of medium and heavy rare earths in the south, the mining amount is small, which is not conducive to centralized and unified mining, thus forming a unique "southern model", Ganzhou is a typical representative.
At present, a number of enterprises in the south, such as Minmetals, Chinalco, Baotou Steel Rare Earth, and Ganzhou Local Rare Earth, are eyeing the medium and heavy rare earth and look forward to a share in resource integration. The situation in neighboring Guangdong and Fujian provinces is more clear, and Guangsheng Nonferrous Metals and Xiamen Tungsten Industry are the main mining industries in these two provinces.
Meng, secretary-general of Jiangxi Rare Earth Society, said that so far, we "only saw a paper announcement, but did not see specific implementation measures".
Another industry expert who did not want to be named said that there is no doubt that rare mineral resources should be concentrated in the hands of the state, at least a large part should be controlled by the state, just like coal and oil, reducing the number of enterprises involved in the source from the source. At present, due to the dispersion of rare earth resources in the south, it may be difficult for rare earth "planning areas" to have unified mining rights.
It is understood that the rare earth industry currently follows the management mechanism of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in charge of the total production index, the Ministry of Land and Resources in charge of the mining index and the Ministry of Commerce in charge of the export quota. This time, because the announcement of the Ministry of Land and Resources is only a master plan at the national level, insiders infer that it is less likely for the central government to recover mining rights and redistribute them.