IV. Better Coordination of Rare Earth Utilization with Environmental Protection

In recent years, out of the need of environmental protection, China has been improving itscontrol over high-energy consuming, highly polluting and resource-based products and relatedindustries. In the rare earth industry in particular, the state has adopted a series of effectivemeasures to better coordinate rare earth development and utilization with environmentalprotection. China will never develop the rare earth industry at the expense of its environment.

The state has strengthened control of the rare earth industry with regard to environmentalprotection and formulated relevant laws and regulations, which is essential to the bettercoordination of rare earth utilization with environmental protection. Since the 1980s, China hasenacted about a dozen laws related to environmental protection, including the EnvironmentalProtection Law and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, and establishedthe systems of environmental impact assessment, control of the total pollutant discharge, andordered treatment of pollution within a time limit. The state promulgated and put into effect theRegulations on Land Reclamation to ensure the full fulfillment of land reclamation obligations,demanding that mining, environmental protection and land reclamation should be conductedconcurrently to timely restore the eco-environment that has been damaged by mining. Sincethe implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), the state has listed energyconservation and emission reduction as part of the objectives of national economic and socialdevelopment, and mandated the targets of reducing the intensity of energy consumption,chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfur-dioxide emission. The 12th Five-Year Plan(2011-2015) has added reducing the intensity of carbon-dioxide emission and emission ofammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxides to the list of mandatory targets. In 2011, to intensifyenvironment protection efforts in the rare earth industry, the state enforced the PollutantDischarge Standards for the Rare Earth Industry, which sets the limits of COD, and emission ofsuch pollutants as ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus, fluorine, thorium, heavy metals, sulfurdioxide, chlorine gas, and particulates for rare earth enterprises. At present, China has beenmaking studies in the establishment of an environmental risk assessment system for the rareearth industry.

Earnest enforcement of laws and regulations on environmental protection has been the key tomaintaining a good environment while developing and utilizing rare earth resources. In recentyears, the state has enforced the environmental impact assessment system to the letter. Ananalysis, prediction and assessment report of the environmental impact that may be caused bya rare earth construction, expansion or renovation project must be submitted in advance, alongwith countermeasures to prevent and mitigate the impact. No project shall be implementedbefore it passes the assessment. To intensify environmental protection efforts in the rare earthindustry, the state also strictly observes the stipulation in the Environmental Protection Law thatinstallations for the prevention and control of pollution at a construction project must bedesigned, built and commissioned together with the principal part of the project, and that aconstruction project should not be commissioned or used until such installations are examinedand considered up-to-standard by environmental protection authorities in charge. Chinaexercises a pollution discharge license system and implements the Discharge Standards ofPollutants for the Rare Earth Industry. Rare earth enterprises are forbidden to dischargepollutants before they obtain pollution discharge licenses from the environmental protectionauthorities, and should strictly observe the standards on the density, quantity and channels ofpollutant discharge. The state adopts a system of compulsory elimination of obsoleteprocesses and equipment, and prohibits the use of tank and heap leaching methods for ion-absorption rare earths and the mining of monazite deposits only. The government also bansthe use of technologies that cause heavy pollution and severe damage to the environment, andacts to prevent ecological degradation and environmental pollution at the source. In recentyears, China has been stricter in implementing the deposit system for protecting and restoringthe geological environment of rare earth mines, urging rare earth enterprises to carry out theireconomic responsibilities for environmental protection and restoration, and graduallyestablishing a responsibility mechanism of environmental control and ecological restoration forthe mines.

The state carries out special environmental protection campaigns to regulate the activities ofthe rare earth industry. In these campaigns, governments at all levels require rare earthenterprises to accelerate the construction of environmental protection facilities, abide by thepollutant discharge standards, and implement clean production. Enterprises that do not meetthese requirements shall be ordered to cease production for pollution control in accordancewith the law, and shall be closed down if they still fail to meet the standards after the deadlineset for them to correct their ways. An overall environmental protection inspection has beenconducted since 2011 on all rare earth mines, smelting, separation and metal productionenterprises, investigating and punishing rare earth enterprises responsible for polluting theenvironment. So far, the state has published two lists of a total of 56 enterprises that have metenvironmental protection standards. As a result, the rare earth industry and its enterpriseshave been urged to put in more than four billion yuan on pollution control and technologyupgrading, markedly enhancing the environmental protection level of the industry. Regardingenterprises that generate heavy pollution, pose environmental hazards, cause strongcomplaints from the public, or violate laws and regulations on environmental protection, thestate will publicize their cases, urge them to rectify their activities within a specified period oftime, supervise their rectification process, and take other disciplinary actions necessary inaccordance with the law. Governments at all levels will appropriate funds to address ecologicaldamage and pollution caused by tailings and slag, which have been formed over a long periodof time.