China plans to increase mine output in world’s largest rare earth deposit by 50%

China plans to expand production capacity of a mine in Bayan Obo in its Inner Mongolia region with an investment of over half a billion yuan (US$74 million).The expansion will raise the mine’s annual output by 50 per cent from 10 million to 15 million tonnes at the world’s largest rare earth deposit.Bayan Obo is a complex polymetallic deposit containing iron, rare earths, fluorite, niobium, scandium and thorium.The project is mainly aimed at increasing iron ore output while rare earths would come as a by-product, according to Baogang Group, the operator.The expansion highlights the gap between geological potential and actual production. It will increase mining capacity at one of China’s most important iron mines while leaving its rare earth production policy unchanged.“Rare earth production is subject to quotas, so there is no need to mine more ore,” Li Yang, a top geologist at Peking University, said in an interview.