China solidified its global dominance in rare earth elements mining with a new discovery that its experts say is likely to be the largest middle and heavy rare earth deposit in the country. The discovery was first reported in the Chinese paper Workers’ Daily late January, then confirmed and published by the China Geological Survey (CGS) under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
According to the CGS, the deposit could host as much as 1.15 million tonnes of resources containing key rare earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which are being sought after globally. Once tapped, it would yield about 470,000 tonnes of these strategic minerals, it estimated.
The discovery is located in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which is known for its rich endowment of minerals and has some of the largest deposits of aluminum, zinc and tin in China. Chinese media claim that the new discovery represents another breakthrough in its mineral exploration, as it is the first super-large ion-adsorption type deposit found in the country in over half a century.
For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/china-flexes-rare-earth-dominance-with-million-tonne-discovery/