2011-02-16 13:34

New rare earth regulatory policies will be announced soon, the China Securities Journal reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The new policies span the whole industry chain of the rare earth business, including developing, smelting, production and exports.

An unnamed analyst said the new policies will have a profound influence on China's rare earth industry and lead to significant changes to the current situation.

He said the new policies include stricter requirements on the management of the rare earth industry, requiring companies in the industry to enhance their resource efficiency, raise emissions standards, control the scale of mine development and adopt more advanced, eco-friendly technologies. The regulators also encourage rare earth developers to form big groups.

The new policy is likely to include rare earth reserves as one of the measures to enhance rare earth efficiency, the report said.

Research on the rare earth industry has been conducted for years. The soon-to-be-announced policies were submitted to the State Council in November last year.