Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone: promoting Industrial Development with Scientific and technological Innovation

SMM: October 15, the 12th China Baotou rare Earth Industry (International) Forum New Technology, New Materials and New products Promotion meeting was held in Binhe Building, Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone, Inner Mongolia. Peng Bingyi, director of the rare Earth Forum Secretariat of Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone rare Earth and High-tech Industry Bureau, said at the promotion meeting: "A series of new technologies and new materials projects such as' new rare earth hydrogen storage alloy and its application', 'rare earth glaze antibacterial ceramics' and 'domestic leading high intelligent NdFeB electroplating production line' have broken foreign monopolies, improved the utilization rate of rare earth elements, and, more importantly, made the innovative spirit of rare earths last for a long time."

When it comes to the spirit of rare earth innovation, Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone has the most say, because Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone is the only state-level high-tech zone named after resources. since its establishment, Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone has experienced from small to big, from weak to strong, and has made brilliant achievements that have attracted the attention of the world. Under the great attention of the party and the government, through the unremitting efforts of generations of rare earth workers, Baotou rare earth high-tech zone industry has experienced from small to large, more sustainable, and built a relatively complete rare earth industrial system with considerable scale, including metallurgy and use. Especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, the cadres and workers of Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone have borne in mind that General Secretary Xi Jinping changed the simple and extensive development mode of "digging and selling soil." strive to build Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone into an important production base of new rare earth materials and applied products in the country and even in the world.

Scientific and technological innovation

Rare earth industry from small to large

Baotou Ke Rui Micro Magnetic New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ke Rui Micro Magnetic") the first phase of the industrialization project of rapidly quenched magnetic powder with an annual output of 5000 tons is stepping up the construction of the production workshop of 2000 tons of rapidly quenched magnetic powder, 500t injection molded NdFeB granular material and 500t injection magnet. At that time, the annual output value of the project will reach 310 million yuan, and the annual sales revenue will be about 412 million yuan.

"the production and sales of bonded magnetic powder and hot-pressed magnetic powder have always been monopolized by McGonagall Magnet in the United States. Our company has followed up the research and development of bonded magnetic powder since 2004. After more than 8 years of efforts, we have obtained two patents related to bonded magnets developed by ourselves. by 2012, a breakthrough has been made, and the products have been verified by customers to reach the same level of performance of similar products abroad, filling in the domestic blank." Lin Jirong, general manager of Kerui Micromagnets, said that as of September 2020, the company had produced and sold more than 900 tons of bonded and hot-pressed magnetic powders, and the good market made the company decide to expand its production scale.

Now the development of domestic NdFeB technology is so good that it is inseparable from the NdFeB production line of Baotou rare Earth Research Institute. "less than a year after Japan invented NdFeB technology, China successfully developed NdFeB magnets comparable to the overall performance and level of patents. In 1988, the first domestic NdFeB permanent magnet production line with an annual output of 40 tons was completed, forming a complete set of technology with independent intellectual property rights, marking the overall development of China's NdFeB industry." Cao Guozhang, a professor at Baotou rare Earth Research Institute, said.

In this century, due to the pull of China's rapid economic development and the increasing demand of rare earth downstream industry, the rapid development of new rare earth materials industry represented by NdFeB industry has led the rapid development of the whole rare earth industry.

"the rare earth permanent magnet material industry of Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone started in 2002, and the industrial scale began to increase rapidly in 2014. At present, the production capacity of rare earth permanent magnet new materials has reached 50,000 tons, ranking in the forefront of the country. It has become a more influential production base of permanent magnet materials in China." Said Zhang Yanping, director of the office of the rare Earth and High-tech Industry Bureau of Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone.

Today's Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone, by extending the industrial chain, upgrading the high-end industry of new rare earth materials, improving the local transformation and added value of raw materials, the scale of rare earth industry is growing, and the cluster benefit has been formed. The smelting separation of rare earths in the north, the polishing powder of Tianjiao Qingmei and the metal production capacity of Ruixin rare earths are all ranked first in the country. The industry chain of rare earth permanent magnet materials such as metal neodymium or praseodymium neodymium-rare earth permanent magnet material-rare earth permanent magnet motor, vertical axis wind generator, rare earth nuclear magnetic resonance has been formed, with Tianjiao Qingmei as the leading enterprise, cerium oxide-polishing powder and polishing liquid-used for polishing materials such as CRT, LCD and optical lens have been formed, and the industry chain of rare earth permanent magnet materials such as metal neodymium or praseodymium-rare earth permanent magnet motor, vertical axis wind turbine, rare earth nuclear magnetic resonance has been formed. Take Seagate environmental protection as the leading enterprise, form the industry chain of catalytic materials such as lanthanum oxide and cerium-catalytic materials; take rare earth hydrogen storage materials-rare earth Ni-MH batteries-new energy vehicles and other hydrogen storage materials industry chain; take Hongbo and Chinese Academy of Sciences colorant projects as guidance, form cerium oxide-vulcanized drill non-toxic colorant-application products and other industrial chains.

Policy escort

Rare earth industry is more sustainable

At present, Baotou Jinmeng Huimeng Magnetic Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jinmeng Huimeng") has an annual output of 3000 tons of sintered NdFeB permanent magnet production line has been completed and put into production, with an output value of more than 250 million yuan for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019. The main products are sold to some large customers at home and abroad, well received by customers. Sun Xiping, the company's legal representative, said confidently: "our company is building a super-miniature magnet production line. Within three years, we will build an ultra-miniature magnet production line with an annual output of 10 billion yuan." While the output is increasing, Jinmeng Huimeng's R & D capability has been further improved, and it has obtained nine independent intellectual property rights in the field of new rare earth materials, including one invention patent.

Such a good business environment is not easy to come by, and it can also be said to be the result of policy guidance.

Once upon a time, with the breakthrough and increasing maturity of rare earth separation technology, the number of rare earth smelting separation enterprises reached hundreds at most, most of them were small private enterprises with low industrial level. Most of these enterprises are rough processing of raw materials, and in order to export, the prices of rare earths have fallen all the way, and many enterprises can only maintain their capital.

In 2011, the State Council issued some opinions of the State Council on promoting the sustained and healthy development of the rare earth industry, clearly proposing that it will take 1 to 2 years to basically form a rare earth industry pattern dominated by large enterprises. On December 30, 2015, the establishment of China North rare Earth (Group) High-tech Co., Ltd. passed the acceptance of the government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous region. At this point, China's first large rare earth group was established in Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone.

With the merger and reorganization of rare earth smelting separation enterprises led by northern rare earths, in addition, Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone actively implemented "some Policy opinions of Baotou City on further accelerating the Development of rare Earth Industry" and "Ten policies on supporting the Development of rare Earth New Materials Industrial Park", supporting the introduction of policies such as "implementation opinions of rare Earth High-tech Zone on sales incentives for rare Earth New material Enterprises", We will increase support from 10 aspects, such as ensuring the supply of raw materials, land policy, infrastructure construction, electricity price concessions, industrial funds, sales incentives and loan discounts. At the same time, Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone introduced Baotou rare Earth Research and Development Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Baotou Materials Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University. Through technical cooperation with local enterprises, jointly building R & D centers and jointly tackling key problems, a number of new technologies, new industries, new products and new projects are being developed, and the innovation capability of rare earth industry has been significantly enhanced. "China Science Intelligence has an annual output of 50,000 sets of servo motors, the preparation of high-quality rare earth special steel by the Institute of Metals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a number of projects such as Jiatai titanium alloy of Shanghai Jiaotong University have made major breakthroughs. After the completion of industrialization, it is expected to lead to the formation of an industrial scale of 10 billion." Zhang Yanping said excitedly.

In the future, Baotou rare Earth High-tech Zone will continue to promote the transformation of rare earth industry from resource development to high-end operation, and strive to build a base for the industry of new rare earth materials and applied products in China and even the world.