Baotou Iron & Steel to Build Rare Earth 'Super Aircraft Carrier'

China-based steel producer Baotou Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. is going to build rare earth 'super aircraft carrier'. On the 20th anniversary of Baotou Iron & Steel's listing, reporters visited the Baiyun Obo Mine to gain insight into the ongoing changes in China's largest rare earth mine.

Baiyun Obo Mine is located in the north of Baotou City, 180 kilometers away from the urban area. After three hours of driving from Baotou, the reporter arrived at the Mine, the scene is miraculous. The huge open-pit mine sits on top of the mine, about 200 meters deep and more than 300 meters in diameter.

Baiyun Obo Mine is undergoing an intelligent transformation. The reporter saw in the control room that all the information in the mine was displayed on the main control screen in real time. Technical controllers have replaced the original truck drivers and can remotely control the operation of the unmanned mine truck in the pit.

There is also a newly arrived remote real-sensing remote-control device in the control room, which is composed of 3 surround screens, steering wheels, brakes, etc., just like a racing arcade machine in a game city. People could sit in this controller to remotely drive an unmanned mine car to achieve precision.

It is reported that the intelligent transformation of Baiyun Obo Mine started in 2018. In September of that year, the group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Huawei and other partners to officially launch the "Development and Application of Smart Mining Technology for Unmanned Driving and Operation under 5G Network Conditions".

In May 2019, the Baiyun Obo mining area unmanned driving project was officially released, becoming the world's first unmanned mining vehicle application based on 5G network conditions. Baotou Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. owns the right to profit from mining rare earth resources

the Baiyun Obo mining area image

The Baiyun Obo mine was discovered in 1927 by Chinese geologist Daoheng Ding during a scientific expedition. This is a polymetallic ore, the main minerals and elements are iron, REEs, niobium, scandium, and thorium. Among them, iron ore reserves are 1.4 billion tons. Rare-earth oxide reserves are 39 million tons, and it is the world's largest mine, accounting for 81% of domestic rare earth reserves. Niobium reserves are about 6.6 million tons, second only to Brazil. Thorium reserves are equivalent to 220,000 tons of THO2 (thorium dioxide), ranking second in the world.

In terms of the distribution of the mining area, the Bayan Obo mine is divided into the main mine, the east mine and the west mine. West Mine belongs to Baotou Iron & Steel, with iron ore reserves of 670 million tons and an average grade of 1.07%. After the beneficiation, the tailings are piled up, with an annual mining volume of 10 million tons.

In addition, the group owns a valuable tailings pond. The tailings pond is located on the west side of the Baotou Iron and Steel plant, with a resource of about 200 million tons, an average rare earth grade of 7.01%, and a rare-earth oxide reserve of 13.82 million tons, making it the second-largest mine in the world.

In the past 20 years since its listing, Baotou Iron & Steel's total assets have increased from 7.27 billion yuan to the current 147.1 billion yuan. The scale of equity financing has reached 45.935 billion yuan, and the total market value has increased from 7.1 billion yuan to more than 88 billion yuan. It has created profits of 8.944 billion yuan for investors.

 

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