China?s Ministry of Finance and State Administration for...

China?s Ministry of Finance and State Administration for Taxation in December 2010 announced a new tax on rare earth minerals that would be effective from April 1 2011.

The tax rates depend on the type of rare earth mined ? $4.54 (30 yuan) per ton for light rare earths and $9.15 (60 yuan) per ton for medium and heavy rare earth metals.

Besides the financial implications, the new tax rates have drawn attention to the fact that China has ? for the first time ? differentiated between light, medium and heavy rare earth minerals.

China?s export quota as it stands now makes no difference between the different types of rare earth metals. As a result, sellers prefer to supply the higher priced heavier rare earth metals.

In fact, the lighter lanthanum and neodymium are sometimes unavailable in spite of being more abundant and in higher demand, while the scarcer heavies such as terbium and dysprosium are easily available.

Analysts say that the new tax implies that China no longer plans to look at rare earths as a single group and its future export quotas might reflect the different demand profiles of each group.....


http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/16040/rare-earth-prices-increase-due-to-new-tax-16040.html