China has raised its production quotas for 2020 for the first batch of rare earth oxides (REO) to 66,000t, up by 10pc from 60,000t in 2019.
The quotas for rare earth mining products comprise 56,425t for light rare earths and 9,575t for ion-absorption rare earths. China allocated 60,000t for the first batch rare earth mining quota in 2019, including 50,425t of light rare earths and 9,575t of ion-absorption rare earths.
The first batch of rare earths production quotas in 2020 equates to half of the total 2019 mining quota of 132,000t.
The quotas are allocated by China's natural resources ministry to provinces, which in turn allocate them to rare earths companies. Most of the production quotas will be allocated to the country's six rare earth groups — Chinalco, Northern Rare Earth, Xiamen Tungsten, China Minmetals, Guangdong Rare Earth and Southern Rare Earth. This is aimed at increasing oversight of the industry and the implementation of government policy.
Quotas for light rare earths mining products have been awarded to Inner Mongolia with 35,375t of REO, Shandong province with 2,050t and Sichuan province with 19,000t.
Production quotas for ion-absorption rare earths have been allocated to Jiangxi province with 4,250t, Fujian with 1,750t, Guangdong with 1,350t, Guangxi with 1,250t, Hunan with 900t and Yunnan province with 75t.
