China's rare earth industry continues to boom, but the residues and development of rare earth mines have created environmental biohazards and damaged people's health. Picture: a rare earth factory in Baotou. (Photo/Xinhua)
China's rampant rare earth mineral mining and extraction in Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region seems to be taking a heavy toll on local residents.
Some have complained of heavy pollution, and also expressed concerns about possible landslides since a waste-holding dam built to contain the residue from the city's rare earth refineries has been built on a seismic fault line.
The waste-holding dam, located 12 kilometers from Baotou's western outskirts, is designed to contain mining waste dumped by the Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co, the country's biggest rare earth producer, has become a "dune"containing radioactive waste. Laced with heavy metal and toxic chemical compounds, it is believed to be causing heavy environmental pollution.
The company is principally engaged in the production and sale of refined rare earth minerals, which are enjoying strong global demand.
Currently, most of the global supply of rare earth minerals comes from a single iron ore mine in the hills north of Baotou. After the iron is extracted, the ore is processed at refineries in Baotou's western outskirts to harvest the rare earth materials, according to a National Business Daily report.
The refineries and the iron ore processing mill pump their waste through pipes into the dam, locally called the "rare earth lake," about 4-5 kilometers outside the refineries.
After collecting waste from processing rare earth minerals and iron ore for 45 years, the lake has become a "radioactive time-bomb," especially because it is said to be located in a seismic fault zone. Meanwhile, toxic chemical compounds from the lake have been seeping into the surrounding underground water that is used to supply wells, crops and livestock, and is suspected of causing various types of cancer and unknown illness among local residents and livestock.
Some 5,000 residents in five villages near the area are already direct victims of the mining process. They are known to jokingly ask visitors: "Do you dare to drink the water here?" Observers said that it reflected their helpless fate.
Hau Bing-wen, a 65 year-old local resident of Dalahi village, said that in 1988, large numbers of livestock died from a variety of unknown illnesses. A large number of villagers have also been suffering from nausea, dizzy spells, arthritis and migraines from drinking contaminated water and pollution.
"Many residents here lost their teeth in their early 30s," Hau added.
According to statistics, between 1993 and 2005, the number of residents of Dalahi village dying of cancer reached 66. In 2010 alone, at least two people have died from cancer in the village, according to Liu Yehnu, a 68 year-old woman.
Every year, about 7 million metric tonnes of mining waste is released into the dam, which has become a very important production facility for the rare earth mineral producing company.
To better manage the dam, the company has set up a waste managing warehouse manned by 400 employees. The annual management fees of the warehouse are 300-500 million yuan. What is held in the dam represents waste for the iron ore mining industry, but for rare earth miners, it represents precious mineral resources.
While the dam has brought opportunities for economic development in Baotou, it has also taken its toll on the agricultural sector, which has borne the brunt of the losses. Most farmland in villages near the dam has been rendered barren because of the pollution.
According to statistics, the harvest of corn dropped to 600 kilograms per acre in 2006 from 1500 kilograms four years ago, while the wheat harvest has dwindled to 400 kg per acre from about 800-1,000 kg. Similarly, the potato harvest has decreased to 2,500 kg per acre from about 6,000-7,000 kg.
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