CRI听力:China Vows to Protect Environment By Merging Rare Earth Manufacturers

China produces more than 90 percent of the world's rare earth elements, the largest exporter of these valuable minerals. However, excessive exploitation has caused serious environmental problems and excessive production has led to a waste of resources.

Chief Secretary of the Resource Department Chen Yanhai from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says the Chinese government has decided to push forward an industrial restructure to escalate its manufacturing efficiency.

"China has set a major direction for an industrial transformation in the rare earth manufacturing area. The government will establish a platform for companies with good reputations in the industry to make the first step. Local competitors can later merge into larger enterprises. Also, this process is the inevitable result of this industry."

However, the industrial restructure is not so easy. So far, 60 percent of resources used by the state-owned mines can be reused and recycled, but when it comes to mines exploited by small companies and even illegal exploiters, the percentage can be as low as 40 percent to 5 percent.

China Minmetals Company is a state-owned miner and manufacturer. President Zhou Zhongshu explains that the government's resolution to merge scattered resources into large ones in two years is ambitious.

"We have to meet three goals. If not, the restructure is just a hollow word. The first is high-end development; the second is green development, and the third is innovative development. For example, we will invest another 35 billion yuan to upgrade the whole system to improve exploitation and manufacturing efficiency, and we will build a consistent industrial chain. We can make full use of our resource advantage to introduce more advanced technology from foreign countries."

So far, developed countries such as the United States have established a system to reserve their rare earth resources. They prefer to import the resources from foreign countries first and protect their own. Countries like Australia and Canada have also put on restrictions on rare earth exploitation. In Japan, 100 percent of their supply depends on imports.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.