Bayan Obo

Bayan Obo is 146 km by road north of Baotou (population 1.5 million), where the ores are concentrated and smelted. The climate of Bayan Obo is extremely dry.[...]About 40,000 people live at Bayan Obo, most of whom work either directly in mining or in support activites.

1990, Lawrence J. Drew, Meng Qingrun, Sun Weijun, “The Bayan Obo iron-rare-earth-niobium deposits, Inner Mongolia, China”, in Lithos, volume 26, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 43

In 1992, during his visit to Bayan Obo, China’s largest rare earth mine, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping declared, “There is oil in the Middle East; there is rare earth in China.”

2010, Cindy A. Hurst, China's Ace in the Hole: Rare Earth Elements, number 59, NDU Press, →OCLC, page 124

On orders from Beijing, state-controlled enterprises have dismantled Baotou refineries and rebuilt them at an enormous mining complex at Bayan Obo in the Gobi Desert, which mines about half the world’s rare earths.

2013 October 22, Keith Bradsher, “China Tries to Clean Up Toxic Legacy of Its Rare Earth Riches”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2022, International Business

All rocks around us contain significant amounts of rare earth elements, but they become concentrated in these exotic magmas through slow crystallisation in Earth’s crust. This is usually not enough to make an ore deposit, which consists of millions of tonnes of rock made up of between 5 and 50% by weight of rare earth elements. A second step of concentration is required. In giant deposits such as Bayan Obo in Inner Mongolia, hot fluids loaded with carbonate appear to have undergone this extra concentration step. But exactly how has been a mystery.

2022 March 18, Joël Brugger, Barbara Etschmann, Marion Louvel, “Powerful X-rays reveal the birth of giant rare earth element deposits – and may give clues for sustainable mining”, in The Conversation, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2022