Rare earths smuggling in Ganzhou, Jiangxi

sum a few points in an interesting story about illegal mining in Jiangxi: “稀土王国”赣州每年超采2万吨 盗采1吨赚10万

In Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the government is regulating rare earths as regulating drugs and gold.

The local government assigned one company to be in charge of mining in the whole city. This company is incapable of mining around the city itself, therefore illegal miners are the ones in control.

The official quota is 8,500 tons of rare earths oxide per year. The actual output is 30,000 tons. Illegal mining takes the bulk of it, at about 20,000 tons.

Illegal mining is mainly driven by high profit. The price of rare earths is 150,000 yuan per ton, five times as much as the 30,000 yuan cost.

The rare earths elements in this region are the most sough after heavy rare earths, including: Yttrium (钇), dysprosium（镝）and terbium（ 铽 ）.