China’s rare earth mining output quota is set to rise on an annual basis to a record high this year, an industry association official said on Wednesday.
The quota is likely to reach 270,000 metric tons for all of 2024, said Chen Zhanheng, vice secretary general at the Association of China Rare Earth Industry, at an industry conference.
The previous record was 255,000 tons in 2023.
The rare earth smelting and separation quota is likely to be 254,000 tons, Chen said, exceeding the previous record of 243,850 tons also set last year.
China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earths. It controls supply by issuing mining, smelting and separation quota every year.
It set its first rare earths mining quota of the year at 135,000 tons, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 12.5% higher than its first quota of 2023.
Rare earths are a group of 17 elements used in products as varied as lasers, military equipment, magnets for electric vehicles, wind turbines and consumer electronics.
(Reporting by Amy Lv, Emily Chow and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher Cushing)
