The city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia, where the only national level rare earths high-tech zone is located, is making itself a center for higher value-added rare earths processing by introducing more investment and research and development capacity, according to a top official of the high-tech zone.

"We need to turn from the old way of selling just the primary product or even unprocessed rare earths to deeper processing," said Miao Yuliang, director of the management committee of the Baotou Rare-Earths High-tech Zone, which was established in 1992 as the only rare earths high-tech zone among the 117 national level high-tech zones in China.

The rare earths reserve in Baotou has 43.5 million metric tons, accounting for 83 percent of the total reserve in China and 30 percent of the world reserve.