On July 9, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) jointly issued the first batch of rare earth mining quota (66 kt) and smelting & separation quota (63.5 kt), both allocated to enterprises equipped with advanced technologies and high level of environmental protection. Firms cannot get the quotas in one of the following cases:

* Mine enterprises have no mining and work safety licenses, construct rare earth resource recycling projects beyond approved time limit or are required to suspend production to eliminate violations.

* Rare earth smelting and separation firms adopt technologies the government bans or requires firms to abandon, boast capacity of lower than 2 000 t/a REO or are required to suspend production to eliminate violations.

* Enterprises fail to meet environmental requirements like Emission Standards on Pollutants from Rare Earth Industry, radioactivity protection standards, etc.

* Enterprises have halted production for a long term.