The Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children in Baotou still had potentially harmful levels of rare earths in their urine ...
"Excessive rare earth mining has resulted in landslides, clogged rivers, environmental pollution emergencies and even major accidents and disasters, causing great damage to people's safety and health and the ecological environment," China's cabinet wrote in 2012 in a comprehensive report on the industry's pollution.. . During a visit I made in 2010 to the Baotou tailings lake, a berm, little more than a high pile of earth, lay around its perimeter to contain the sludge ...
topThe Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found...
top... Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children in Baotou still had potentially harmful levels of rare earths in their urine
top... radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children in Baotou still had potentially harmful levels of rare earths in their urine
top... people's safety and health and the ecological environment," China's cabinet wrote in 2012 in a comprehensive report on the industry's pollution.. . During a visit I made in 2010 to the Baotou tailings lake, a berm, little more than a high pile of earth, lay around its perimeter to contain the sludge
top... in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children in Baotou still...
topThe Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by...
top... warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children...
topThe industrialized world, by contrast, had tighter regulations and stopped accepting even limited environmental harm from the industry as far back as the 1990s, when rare earth mines and processing centers closed elsewhere
topThe Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another...
topThe Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children...
top... Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in...
top... mining has resulted in landslides, clogged rivers, environmental pollution emergencies and even major accidents and disasters, causing great damage to people's safety and health and the ecological environment," China's cabinet wrote in 2012 in a comprehensive report on the industry's pollution.
top... the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children in Baotou still had potentially...
topOversight of the rare earth industry in Baotou is complicated. Pollution regulation in China is mainly the responsibility of provincial governments - in this case, the government of Inner Mongolia.
topBut the same provincial government also owns Baogang Group, a mining and chemicals giant that runs the Bayan Obo mine, the steel mills and most of the rare earth refineries in Baotou
topIn China, the worst damage occurred in and around Baotou, a flat, industrial city of two million people in China's Inner Mongolia, on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert.
top. In China, the worst damage occurred in and around Baotou, a flat, industrial city of two million people in China's Inner Mongolia, on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert.
topThe Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders...
topThe Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In...
topBaogang has been a pillar of China's military-industrial complex since Mao. The Baotou Museum celebrates that Baogang made much of the steel for China's tanks and artillery in the 1950s.
top... produce most of the world's rare earth metals and practically all of a few crucial kinds of rare earths. This has given China's government near complete control over a critical choke point in global trade.. . But for decades in northern China, toxic sludge from rare earth processing has been dumped into a four-square-mile artificial lake
topThis has given China's government near complete control over a critical choke point in global trade.. . But for decades in northern China, toxic sludge from rare earth processing has been dumped into a four-square-mile artificial lake.
topOversight of the rare earth industry in Baotou is complicated. Pollution regulation in China is mainly the responsibility of provincial governments - in this case, the government of Inner Mongolia.
topOversight of the rare earth industry in Baotou is complicated. Pollution regulation in China is mainly the responsibility of provincial governments - in this case, the government of Inner Mongolia
topOversight of the rare earth industry in Baotou is complicated. Pollution regulation in China is mainly the responsibility of provincial governments - in this case, the government of Inner Mongolia
topOversight of the rare earth industry in Baotou is complicated. Pollution regulation in China is mainly the responsibility of provincial governments - in this case, the government of Inner Mongolia.
top... produce most of the world's rare earth metals and practically all of a few crucial kinds of rare earths. This has given China's government near complete control over a critical choke point in global trade.. . But for decades in northern China, toxic sludge from rare earth processing has been dumped into a four-square-mile artificial lake
topChinese mines and refineries produce most of the world's rare earth metals and practically all of a few crucial kinds of rare earths. This has given China's government near complete control over a critical choke point in global trade.
top... produce most of the world's rare earth metals and practically all of a few crucial kinds of rare earths. This has given China's government near complete control over a critical choke point in global trade.
topIn trade disputes with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near...
top... with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.. . Until a crackdown in 2010 and 2011, many illegal mines in south-central China spilled acid and ammonia into streams, poisoning rice fields
topIn trade disputes with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.
top... country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.. . Until a crackdown in 2010 and 2011, many illegal mines in south-central China spilled acid and ammonia into streams, poisoning rice fields.
topIn trade disputes with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.
topIn trade disputes with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.
top. China's leaders have been working for over a decade to clean up the country's rare earth industry, at a cost running into the billions of dollars.
top. Achieving dominance in rare earths came with a heavy cost for China, which largely tolerated severe environmental damage for many years. The industrialized world, by contrast, had tighter regulations and stopped accepting even limited environmental harm from...
topChina's leaders have been working for over a decade to clean up the country's rare earth industry, at a cost running into the billions of dollars.
topBaotou's lake is so large that it cannot easily be rebuilt with a liner.. . Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry.
topBaotou's lake is so large that it cannot easily be rebuilt with a liner.. . Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry.
top"Excessive rare earth mining has resulted in landslides, clogged rivers, environmental pollution emergencies and even major accidents and disasters, causing great damage to people's safety and health and the ecological environment," China's cabinet wrote in 2012 in a comprehensive report on the industry's pollution.
topBaotou's lake is so large that it cannot easily be rebuilt with a liner.. . Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry.
topThe Weikuang Dam, also known as a tailings lake, is seven miles north of the Yellow River and was built in the 1950s without the thick, waterproof liner underneath that became standard in the West in the 1970s
topThe Weikuang Dam, also known as a tailings lake, is seven miles north of the Yellow River and was built in the 1950s without the thick, waterproof liner underneath that became standard in the West in the 1970s
topSimilarly, researchers at the elite Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, which is a government ministry, warned in a technical paper last year about "serious air and tailings pond pollution" in the Baotou area
topBaotou's lake is so large that it cannot easily be rebuilt with a liner.. . Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry.
topSimilarly, researchers at the elite Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, which is a government ministry, warned in a technical paper last year about "serious air and tailings pond pollution" in the Baotou area
topIn processing rare earths, acid is used to pry apart the chemical envelope that contains them in nature. Radioactive thorium is almost always released
top"Excessive rare earth mining has resulted in landslides, clogged rivers, environmental pollution emergencies and even major accidents and disasters, causing great damage to people's safety and health and the ecological environment," China's cabinet wrote in 2012 in a comprehensive report on the industry's pollution
topA nearby residential community had high rates of pollution-related health problems, according to Chinese experts at the time. Baotou itself was shrouded with smog, and the air had an acrid, faintly metallic taste
topBaotou's lake is so large that it cannot easily be rebuilt with a liner.. . Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry.
top... emergencies and even major accidents and disasters, causing great damage to people's safety and health and the ecological environment," China's cabinet wrote in 2012 in a comprehensive report on the industry's pollution.
topA nearby residential community had high rates of pollution-related health problems, according to Chinese experts at the time. Baotou itself was shrouded with smog, and the air had an acrid, faintly metallic taste
topA nearby residential community had high rates of pollution-related health problems, according to Chinese experts at the time. Baotou itself was shrouded with smog, and the air had an acrid, faintly metallic taste
topA nearby residential community had high rates of pollution-related health problems, according to Chinese experts at the time. Baotou itself was shrouded with smog, and the air had an acrid, faintly metallic taste.
topA nearby residential community had high rates of pollution-related health problems, according to Chinese experts at the time. Baotou itself was shrouded with smog, and the air had an acrid, faintly metallic taste.
top... environmental harm from the industry as far back as the 1990s, when rare earth mines and processing centers closed elsewhere.. . In China, the worst damage occurred in and around Baotou, a flat, industrial city of two million people in China's Inner Mongolia, on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert.
topA nearby residential community had high rates of pollution-related health problems, according to Chinese experts at the time. Baotou itself was shrouded with smog, and the air had an acrid, faintly metallic taste.
topBut even as other cleanup measures continue, the Chinese authorities have increasingly censored discussions of rare earth industry pollution. State media reported a decade ago that thousands of acres of grasslands near Baotou had been closed to livestock grazing...
top... ministry, warned in a technical paper last year about "serious air and tailings pond pollution" in the Baotou area.. . The Baotou Radiation Environment Management Office warned in 2009 that at the Bayan Obo iron ore and rare earths mine, 80 miles north of the city in the Gobi Desert, radioactive thorium was being "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In...
topAn artificial lake of sludge known as the Weikuang Dam, four square miles in size, holds the waste left over after metals are extracted from mined ore.
topAn artificial lake of sludge known as the Weikuang Dam, four square miles in size, holds the waste left over after metals are extracted from mined ore.
topIn trade disputes with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.. . Until a crackdown in 2010 and 2011, many illegal mines in south-central China spilled acid and ammonia into streams, poisoning rice fields
top... disputes with the United States and the European Union, China has since April halted exports of samarium to any country and has restricted exports of heavy rare earths, which are mined separately near Longnan in south-central China.. . Until a crackdown in 2010 and 2011, many illegal mines in south-central China spilled acid and ammonia into streams, poisoning rice fields
topThere were also modest signs of environmental improvement during a visit in April to the main valley producing heavy rare earths near Longnan.. . A small tailings pond next to the largest of the mines had a black liner visibly sticking up around its sides, in an apparent attempt to contain pollution
topBaotou calls itself the world capital of the rare earth industry, but the city and its people bear the scars from decades of poorly regulated rare earths production.
top... "discharged into the environment in the form of waste slag, wastewater and dust." In 2003, another paper found intellectual development disorders among children in Baotou affected by rare earths industry pollution, and a paper in 2017 found that children in Baotou still had potentially harmful levels of rare earths in their urine
topBaotou calls itself the world capital of the rare earth industry, but the city and its people bear the scars from decades of poorly regulated rare earths production.. . An artificial lake of sludge known as the Weikuang Dam, four square miles in size, holds the waste left over...
top... calls itself the world capital of the rare earth industry, but the city and its people bear the scars from decades of poorly regulated rare earths production.. . An artificial lake of sludge known as the Weikuang Dam, four square miles in size, holds the waste left over after metals are extracted from mined ore
topIn China, the worst damage occurred in and around Baotou, a flat, industrial city of two million people in China's Inner Mongolia, on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert. Baotou calls itself the world capital of the rare earth industry, but the city and its people bear the scars...
topBaotou's lake is so large that it cannot easily be rebuilt with a liner.. . Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry. But Chinese academics and other experts have warned that environmental damage remains after years of poor practices...
topIn China, the worst damage occurred in and around Baotou, a flat, industrial city of two million people in China's Inner Mongolia, on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert. Baotou calls itself the world capital of the rare earth industry, but the city and its people bear the scars from decades of poorly regulated rare earths production
top. Government cleanup efforts have helped mitigate some health and safety risks in the industry. But Chinese academics and other experts have warned that environmental damage remains after years of poor practices and lax oversight