Ion-adsorption clays of southern China, Ganzhou

The ion-adsorption clays of Jiangxi and neighbouring provinces remain the dominant source of heavy rare earths, indispensable to high-temperature magnets. The historic deposits are being depleted and extraction, highly polluting, is capped by Beijing, shifting the burden onto Burmese imports. The entire global chain for dysprosium and terbium begins here or passes through it.