China has discovered a superlarge rare earth deposit with 1.15 million tons of potential resources in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province, the China Geological Survey (CGS) under under the Ministry of Natural Resources said on Thursday.
The key rare earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium exceed 470,000 tons in this newly discovered ion-adsorption-type rare earth deposit, marking another significant breakthrough in China since the first such discovery in east China's Jiangxi Province in 1969, according to the CGS.
The deposit is expected to become China's largest medium and heavy rare earth deposit, the CGS added.
"Rare earth elements are a group of 16 chemical elements, which can be divided into three small groups: light, medium and heavy. Each new energy vehicle requires 0.8 kilograms of rare earth, so the demand of the element is huge and increasing every year," said Wang Xueqiu, principal scientist of the Institute of Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration under the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Medium and heavy rare earth resources, which are essential for new energy, high-tech and national defense industries, are relatively scarce in China, so the deposit is expected to help ease the scarcity of rare earth for many fields.
China discovers superlarge rare earth deposit in Yunnan
