China Tightens Rare Earth Management With New Regulations

The measures require companies to report the flow of production monthly and expand the quota system to control the sector’s mining, smelting, and separation.

Samples of rare earth minerals (L–R) Cerium oxide, Bastnasite, Neodymium oxide, and Lanthanum carbonate are on display during a tour of Molycorp's Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in Mountain Pass, Calif., on June 29, 2015. David Becker/Reuters

China has rolled out new interim measures to regulate the rare earth sector in the latest effort to tighten its grip over the metals critical to global semiconductor, defense, and other sectors.

Rare earth producers are now required to set up an internal tracking system to record production flows and submit the information to a national database on a monthly basis, according to the text of the regulation released by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Aug. 22.