New rare earth criteria to tip industry shakedown   

中國提高稀土業準入門檻 三分之一礦企或不達標

中國工業和信息化部6日發布《稀土行業準入條件》，按照該標準，將近三分之一的礦山企業，接近二分之一的冶煉分離企業可能未達到要求。

Beijing (CNS) -- On August 6, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released the Admittance Thresholds for the Rare Earth Industry, setting standards companies will have to meet with respect to production scale, processing procedures and technology, and resource utilization.

Raising the minimum admittance standards will not only prevent abuses that result from vicious competition, but also elevate production and operation quality across the industry, said Jia Yinsong, director of the Rare Earth Office of MIIT.

Jia expects one third of the mining companies and fully half of the smelting operations will fail to meet the threshold criteria and will face the options of merging or restructuring.