Highlights
- China Minmetals is accelerating rare earth sector dominance through intelligent, digital, and green technological innovations.
- Strategic inspection tour of Hunan Province highlights China’s commitment to advanced mineral processing and resource security.
- State-owned enterprise strategy focuses on deep-sea mining, AI integration, and comprehensive industrial transformation.
From May 12–13, Chen Dexin (opens in a new tab), Chairman and Party Secretary of China Minmetals Corporation, led a strategic inspection tour of four affiliated companies in Hunan Province— (opens in a new tab)a key rare earth and tungsten processing hub. The tour, combining operational oversight with high-level policy guidance, emphasized the growing role of technology, environmental stewardship, and high-value resource development in the group’s roadmap for rare earths and critical minerals under China’s evolving industrial strategy.
Chen’s visits included stops at the following affiliated companies:
| Affiliated Company | Relevance |
|---|---|
| Hunan Yaogangxian Mining Co., Ltd | The leader assessed ecological restoration efforts and inspected scheelite mining operations |
| Hunan Ferrous Xintianling Tungsten Industry Co., Ltd | A review of the intelligent control center and a new ore dressing facility |
| Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd (opens in a new tab) | Home to China’s state key laboratory for deep-sea mineral resource development |
| The 23rd Metallurgical Construction Group | A vital part of Minmetals’ traditional heavy industry network |
These site visits signal China Minmetals’ intention to integrate traditional mining operations with forward-looking goals, such as deep-sea resource exploitation, digital mining, and sustainable mineral processing, all while advancing Party discipline and governance reforms.
Implications for the Rare Earth Industry: Green, Deep, and Digital
While tungsten and base metal operations were the formal focus, Chen’s emphasis on strategic themes like intelligent upgrading, green transformation, and deep-sea mineral development reflects Minmetals’ broader ambitions in rare earths and strategic materials. As the world’s top state-owned metals and mining conglomerate, China Minmetals controls key segments of the rare earth value chain, including exploration, separation, metallurgy, and functional materials production.
During his tour, Chen stressed the importance of:
- Expanding prospecting efforts, especially to strengthen rare earth resource reserves;
- Fully implementing national R&D programs on deep-sea mining, which could yield access to rare earth-rich polymetallic nodules and unlock future supply independence from terrestrial constraints;
- Driving smart mining upgrades through AI, IoT, and process digitization to improve yields, lower emissions, and enhance cost efficiency.
These directives reinforce the state’s commitment to securing critical minerals under China’s jurisdiction, especially as global tensions increase over rare earth supply chains.
Central SOE Strategy: Political Alignment Meets Industrial Leverage
Chen’s tour also reaffirmed the ideological and policy alignment of central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with President Xi Jinping’s national development goals. Enterprises are not just economic actors—they are arms of China’s strategic resource apparatus. Chen called on executives to:
- Demonstrate “central SOE responsibility” in resource security, ecological protection, and high-quality development;
- Accelerate the transformation of traditional industries through “intelligent, digital, and green” pathways;
- Leverage the “spirit of craftsmanship” to build technical leadership and workforce discipline.
- Strengthen internal compliance systems to maintain Party integrity and ensure operational transparency.
This all-of-enterprise governance model, mixing state oversight with technological ambition, remains a defining feature of China’s competitive advantage in the rare earth sector—and a growing challenge for fragmented Western supply chains.
China Is Not Slowing Down
For the global rare earth and critical mineral markets, Chen’s Hunan tour sends a clear signal: China is accelerating, not retreating, from its position of dominance in rare earths. Through coordinated SOE reform, environmental modernization, and investment in deep-sea and advanced material platforms, China Minmetals is solidifying its role as a vertically integrated, policy-aligned, innovation-led resource powerhouse.
As Western governments continue to debate permitting frameworks and subsidize upstream projects, China Minmetals is already deploying capital and labor toward the next frontier: deep-sea minerals, smart processing, and carbon-efficient production.
Discuss this topic and more impacting the rare earth sector at the Rare Earth Exchanges Forum (opens in a new tab).
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