[Domestic] The Second Batch Of Rare Earth Mining Quotas Was Issued, And The Year-On-Year Growth Rate Slowed Down Significantly

On September 25, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the Notice on Issuing for the Second Batch of Quotas for Rare Earth Mining, Smelting, and Separation in 2023, which showed the second batch of quotas for rare earth mining is 120,000 mt and that of smelting and separation is 115,000 mt.

According to SMM statistics, the second batch of rare earth mining quotas included 111,793 mt of rock-type rare earths, a year-on-year increase of 10%; and 8,207 mt of ion-adsorption type rare earths, a year-on-year increase of 7%. In addition, the total rare earth mining quotas for the first two batches of 2023 is 240,000 mt, up 14.3% YoY, including 220,850 mt of rock-type rare earth, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%, and 19,150 mt of ion-adsorption type rare earths, the same as last year.

According to the above data, the growth rate of rare earth mining quotas slowed down significantly in 2023, while the growth was exclusively contributed by light rare earth resources.

From January to July this year, the import volume of rare earths from Southeast Asia increased more than five times compared with the same period last year. However, after August, the import volume of ion-adsorption type rare earth tumbled from the previous month, and it’s unclear when the imports could recover.