At the "I am a Shareholder" event held on June 17th, small and medium-sized investors visited Baosteel Rare Earth and learned that Baosteel Rare Earth will focus on optimizing its product structure, extending the industrial chain, and enhancing product added value in the future. We will increase investment in environmental protection and centralized sewage treatment.

Optimize product structure

Zhang Zhong, General Manager of Baosteel Rare Earth, stated that Baosteel Rare Earth currently has 29 subordinate units, including production oriented enterprises, business oriented enterprises, trade oriented enterprises, and scientific research units; The products include raw material products, material based products (including magnetic materials, luminescent materials, hydrogen storage materials, and polishing materials), and deep processing application products (such as hydrogen storage batteries, nuclear magnetic resonance machines, and more than 400 other products)

"Baosteel Rare Earth will optimize its product structure in the future. By the end of the" Twelfth Five Year Plan "period, the sales revenue from selling raw materials will be reduced to below 50%, the sales revenue of material type products will increase from less than 10% in the past to 35%, and the sales revenue of high-end application products will account for about 15%." Zhang Zhong said.

In terms of scientific research, Baosteel Rare Earth is committed to extending the rare earth industry chain and increasing added value. "We have the only national research institute that solely studies rare earth in China. In addition, Baotou Iron and Steel Group has 17 enterprise technology research and development centers under Baotou Iron and Steel Group, and has also established the Baotou Iron and Steel Group Rare Earth Innovation Technology Industry Alliance." Zhang Zhong said that Baotou Iron and Steel Group invested 100 million yuan in rare earth research last year.

For the extension of the company's products, Zhang Zhong believes that there are 17 types of rare earth elements, which are applied in various industries. Baotou Steel's rare earth elements cannot all be involved. Our focus is to expand and strengthen the material type products, and selectively produce application products.

Increase investment in environmental protection

Regarding environmental protection issues, Zhang Zhong stated that the main pollution issues are the three wastes (exhaust gas, wastewater, and slag), and Baosteel's rare earths meet national standards in all three aspects.

Zhang Zhong further stated that Baosteel's rare earths have obvious chemical enterprise properties and are not a high energy consuming industry with less exhaust emissions. Except for a few metal smelting enterprises, the difficulty of dust removal is very low. Compared with the treatment of exhaust emissions in the steel and power industries, the pressure is very low and it is easy to meet the standards.

In terms of waste residue, rare earth waste residue is mainly generated during the roasting process from concentrate to rare earth carbonate, which contains radioactive element thorium. According to the latest national industrial pollutant discharge standards, it is necessary to build a centralized warehouse for stacking. The company's waste residue is stored in a specialized national level radioactive residue warehouse in Baotou.

In terms of wastewater, rare earth wastewater mainly produces ammonia, nitrogen, alkali, acid, and salt, which meet the latest national industrial pollutant discharge standards. The next step for the company is to achieve zero emissions through transformation. Wastewater discharge is mainly generated during processes such as mineral processing and metallurgical separation, saponification, and extraction. Baotou Iron and Steel Rare Earth is implementing an oxide ore relocation project. As for the wastewater generated during the smelting and separation process, Baosteel Group requires that no wastewater be injected into the tailings pond before the end of the year, achieving zero discharge and full recycling.

"We are currently carrying out three major centralized renovation projects, one of which is centralized sewage treatment." Zhang Zhong said that the company is also determined to treat the tailings pond by greening the environment, draining the sewage from the tailings pond, injecting new water, and restoring the original ecological environment.