Recently, Meng Wei, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, stated at a press conference on macroeconomic operations that the country is urgently studying and introducing relevant policy measures to effectively leverage the special value of rare earths as strategic resources. From the statement of the National Development and Reform Commission, controlling rare earth production will be the main direction of rare earth policies in the future. For breakthroughs in core technologies for high-end applications, relevant incentive policies will be introduced in the future.

It is reported that in order to promote the high-quality development of the rare earth industry, the National Development and Reform Commission has recently held three consecutive symposiums, listening to the opinions and suggestions of rare earth industry experts, key enterprises, and relevant local authorities. The purpose of holding these symposiums is to accelerate the construction of a development pattern for the rare earth industry with a reasonable industrial structure, advanced technological level, effective resource protection, and orderly production and operation, and to promote the high-quality development of China's rare earth industry.

With the further highlighting of the strategic value of rare earths, the application prospects of rare earth materials are extremely broad, covering fields such as rail transit, new energy vehicles, and electronic information. However, the rare earth industry also faces many challenges. For example, illegal mining and production are repeatedly prohibited, leading to low prices of rare earth products and failing to reflect the value of scarce resources; The rare earth industry as a whole is in the middle and low end, lacking independent intellectual property technology; The pressure of safety and environmental protection and the constraints of factor costs are becoming increasingly prominent in the development of the industry.

As a result, China's rare earth resources have been plagued by rampant mining and other phenomena. Therefore, the country has two directive plans for regulating the rare earth industry, one of which is the Development Plan for the Rare Earth Industry (2016-2020) issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in October 2016. The Plan proposes to reasonably regulate the total amount of rare earth mining and production, and control the annual mining output of rare earth to be less than 140000 tons by 2020.

According to this plan, the domestic rare earth industry will enter a development stage mainly focused on mid to high end applications and high added value within 2020, fully leveraging the strategic value of rare earth application functions. The production of general rare earths has decreased, while the annual average production of major rare earth functional materials will increase by more than 15%, and the proportion of mid to high end rare earth functional materials will significantly increase.

This indicates that while controlling rare earth production, the country will vigorously extend the rare earth industry chain and promote the development of rare earth new materials industry towards a wide range, deep level, high-level, and clustered development. On the other hand, breakthroughs will be made in basic research and key technology research and application as soon as possible, promoting the establishment of an aggregated development trend among various entities in politics, industry, academia, research and application, promoting deep integration of industrial chain, innovation chain, and funding chain, improving the rare earth industry development service system, effectively promoting the industrialization of scientific research results, and supporting the high-quality development of the rare earth industry.

For example, Baotou Rare Earth High tech Zone has introduced several institutions such as Baotou Rare Earth R&D Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Baotou Materials Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the "the Belt and Road" China Europe Key Laboratory in the past two years to fully promote scientific research achievements to go out of the laboratory and realize industrialization, break foreign technical barriers at one fell swoop, and enhance China's voice in the global intelligent manufacturing field; Major technological breakthroughs have been made in industrial projects such as rare earth modified sapphire, high-purity alumina, and rare earth oxide coatings, filling the industry gap.

China's implementation of total mining control for rare earths is based on strategic considerations. The rare earth industry should take a high-end path, refine and strengthen the industry, efficiently transform resources, continuously increase added value, and make rare earths "rarer". Some countries have formulated a series of rare earth strategies and policies, and China should also elevate the rare earth industry to the national strategic level for top-level design and promote high-quality development.

In order for China's rare earth industry to promote high-quality development, it must be driven by innovation. The traditional development model of the rare earth industry has come to an end. If comparative advantages cannot be updated and development momentum cannot be rebuilt, the competitiveness of the rare earth industry will be weakened. The key to updating comparative advantages and rebuilding development momentum lies in promoting economic structural adjustment, improving development quality and efficiency through the transformation, upgrading, and innovative development of the rare earth industry. (From China Nonferrous Metals Network)