After five, the workers leave the factory, which unfolds colossally behind the walls. You can see a landscape of chimneys that spit smoke, metal ducts and huge ships. About the entrance, a slogan of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, encourages “participating in the industrial avant -garde” and a painted in the happer to “raise creativity with the rare earths.” They are the domains of the Baogang group, located on the outskirts of Baotou, a city of 2.7 million inhabitants in the Chinese province of Mongolia Interior, near the Gobi desert. The history of this conglomerate, born in 1954, runs in parallel to the rise of China as a superpower, and its growing domain of determining resources in the geopolitical contest of the 21st century.
This group of 17 chemical elements is a key piece in the commercial battle between Washington and Beijing. After Donald Trump’s tariff cannon, China replied with export restrictions of seven of them and their derived products, a blow that the communist authorities helped are aware of their negotiation power. The People’s Republic was responsible in 2024 of 69% of the world mining of these resources, according to the United States Geological Service; It has 40% of the proven world reserves and controls, on average, 80% of the different links in the global value chain, according to China Mining Magazine.
A good part of the defendants leave Baogang factories in Baotou. The city is known as the world capital of rare earths. Here almost everyone knows their relevance. “They are a strategic resource. Some weapons are made with rare earths,” summarizes Dao Qing, a 16 -year -old student, who is visiting the City Museum, in a neighborhood baptized as the new district of the rare earth. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to successes in this field, and the student is in front of the panel that summarizes the start -up, with Soviet help, of the first high ovens in Baotou. In a showcase a piece of the tape that cut the then prime minister, Zhou Enlai, during his inauguration in 1959.
Its location was not accidental. The development of Baotou is linked to, about 150 kilometers north. In 1934, a geologist sent from Beijing discovered the presence of two rare earth elements. They would follow more. Today the reserves of this mine total 83% of China’s total and 38% of the World Cup. It is the main planetary source of light rare earths, among which are the Cerium (fundamental to improve the ductility of the steel), the neodymium (high -resistance magnets, essential in the manufacture of electric vehicles engines) and the samarium (the United States uses it in heat -resistant magnets for its supersonic and missile fighters), and some heavy, such as the terbian (valued by its luminous properties).
With the arrival of the opening and reform period, in 1978, the then Vice Prime Minister, Fang Yi, director of the Science and Technology Commission, placed its exploitation in the center of the modernization model. He declared the site as “a national treasure” and in 1981 he encouraged the country to become “a power of rare earths in the world.” He succeeded as developed countries left their mined and processed, for cost and ecological impact. “Environmental concerns threaten to the closure of the only American producer of these elements,” he warned in 1998. He referred to a mine in Mountain Pass (California), which closed a few years, until he reopened for strategic issues. A couple of weeks ago, the Pentagon announced that it had become the main shareholder of MP Materials, the Mountain Pass operator.
In Baotou the environmental ravages are perceived. At least since 1980, neighbors have noticed devastating effects linked to leaks of the immense Waikuang tailings dike: cattle developed dental deformations that prevented them from feeding, and many species died shortly after birth. Official reports recorded a high number of human diseases – digestive problems, generalized weakness and an increase in cancer deaths – in addition to a drastic fall in agricultural production. The analyzes revealed that the groundwater contained excessive levels of chlorides, dissolved solids, hardness and sulfates, and a professor at the Chinese radiological protection institute, along with other experts, showed that prolonged inhalation of dust of rare earth minerals containing thorium (a radioactive element) can cause lung cancer. In recent years, actions have been implemented to mitigate pollution. In 2023, the city obtained 4.05 million yuan (about 483,000 euros) from the central government to carry out an environmental monitoring of the soil and groundwater.
“Do you have any work for me?” Asks Mr. Wang, a retiree sitting in a corner of an old working colony located a few hundred meters from the Waikuang dike. They are brick houses, some without light or water. The Zumban mosquitoes, and a group of neighbors talk by mixing the Mandarin and its Mongol dialect. Several, like Mr. Wang, worked in “The Industry”, they call it. The jobs, the premises count, continue to attract people from all over China, with salaries of about 6,000 or 7,000 yuan (715 or 834 euros) per month. Retirees charge pensions of about 2,000 yuan (240 euros).
“Rare earths drive the economy, but generate pollution,” adds another neighbor. He believes that the air they breathe contains radiation. “That is why all closed windows are,” he says, pointing out the opaque crystals with newspaper curtains and papers. The social perception of the problem grew in 2010. Reports were published in Chinese media. And the government decreed the transfer of about 5,000 affected. Today they live in a residential complex about 10 kilometers, at whose entrance there is an lively deployment of street vendors. The neighbors confirm that they were transferred “by pollution.” A teenager observes the strangers. I do not trust.
That one begins to understand it instantly. That night, the hotel reserved in Baotou explains that it cannot house a foreign. At the door, a woman who claims to be from the local office of the Foreign Ministry is awaited. It worries about plans and warns: “In China you have to practice journalism within legality.” In the morning, at the next reserved hotel, four people wait in the lobby. They get on two cars and follow the taxi in which this reporter and his interpreter move to the train station.
The intention is to travel to Bayan Obo, where the mine is. The old railroad leaves factories behind, crosses mountains covered with grass and meadows where horses graze. When descending in Bayan Obo, a special monitoring device awaits. These persecutors do unfeasible journalistic work. They follow one, two, three or four people and up to three cars through the dusty streets. They are not identified. They try to avoid or hinder interactions. We enter a small clothing store, and pass behind; The same in the local library. In the center, there is an outstanding exhibitor with Chinese academic publications on rare earths. The persecutor intervenes:
“You can’t take photos or take notes.”
-Because?
“Because she talks about rare earths.”
They can only be read, he says, which is false:. One of the studies, prepared for China to report its “decision making in the formulation of security strategies”, warns that the production of rare earths “headed by the United States”. Its objective is to “reduce dependence”, and has weakened Beijing’s ability to “influence international trade.”
Suddenly, the library responsible announces that it has to close before time. The indefatigable persecutors continue to the lonely rare earth square – “You can’t take photos” – and then to the Bayan Obo mine park. There they welcome two retired excavators after 30 years of service, and a huge mountain of ocher colors is seen in the distance, with the summit cut after decades of exploitation. It is the largest rare land mine on the planet. Trucks circulate on the crest as avid insects: “No photos.”
