China Locks Down Northern Hub for Coal and Rare Earths Output
- Inner Mongolia is China’s second-biggest coal mining region
- As well as rare earths, Baotou also hosts a large steel mill
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The lockdown of Baotou in the northern region of Inner Mongolia takes China’s Covid Zero policy deep into coal country and to a crucial hub for the production of rare earths.
Baotou, home to about 2.7 million people, announced late Monday that it will lock down for a week after it reported two cases of the virus. China Northern Rare Earth Group, one of the country’s six major miners of the minerals, is based in the city and operates the nearby Baiyun Obo mine, the world’s largest rare earth deposit.