China starts work on vast new rare earth mine

Move comes as country reviews using metals in US trade war

20190614N rare earths

China is a major supplier of a variety of rare earth minerals that are essential to several key technologies including electric car motors. (Photo courtesy of Advanced Material Japan)

SHUNSUKE TABETA, Nikkei staff writer

BEIJING -- China has begun what is described as a project to develop one of the world's biggest rare earth mines at a time when the supply of the vital industrial metals has become caught in the U.S.-China trade war.

China Minmetals Rare Earth, a unit of state-owned China Minmetals, started developing the deposit in the Jianghua Yao Autonomous County of Hunan Province, according to the local government.

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