The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government Office said that Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare Earth Hi Tech Company Limited will replace its competitors in Inner Mongolia to become the only firm running upstream operations of rare earth in northern China.

The other 35 upstream companies in the rare earth industry in Hohhot, Baotou and Bayan Nur cities in Inner Mongolia will face restructuring or closure. The restructuring work will be finished by the end of June.

Mr Ya Saning director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Economic and Information Technology Commission said that through the integration of upstream rare earth companies, a unified system will be formed under Baotou Steel Rare Earth and will comprise all operations including mining, mineral separation, smelting and trading.

Mr Liu Jingchun researcher at the same commission as Ya said that "At the current scale of production, only Baotou Steel Rare Earth can satisfy the control index of total mining for the Ministry of Land and Resources, the mandatory production plan of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the export quota of the Ministry of Commerce."

(Sourced from Globaltimes.cn)