1927, geologist ding daoheng discovered baiyunebo iron mine in inner Mongolia with the scientific expedition team from China and northwest Sweden. 1933, ding daoheng knew that he Zuo Lin had profound attainments in polarizing microscope, so he entrusted him to study the ore of baiyunebo. He studied more than a dozen boxes of specimens collected by Ding Daoheng in detail. 1934, he discovered two tiny novel minerals, named Baiyun Mine and Aobao Mine (later proved to be monazite and fluorocarbon-calcium-brocade mine), which were proved to be rare earth minerals by spectral analysis of Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He boldly predicted that the mine is rich in rare earth elements. At that time, Ding Daoheng pointed out that this mine was a promising iron mine, but the relevant departments thought it was nonsense and insignificant.
It was not until the founding of New China that the geological exploration of Baotou Steel and Baiyunebo mines was launched on a large scale. From 65438 to 0958, China Academy of Sciences and Soviet Academy of Sciences formed a joint expedition to study the material composition of Baiyunebo mine. He was appointed captain of the China team. Under his leadership, after several years of hard work, it was finally found out that this mine is not only a large iron mine, but also the largest rare earth mine in the world, with rare earth reserves accounting for 80% of the world's total reserves. Its mineral composition exceeds 150, which is the highest in the world. 1959 found a lot of niobium and tantalum, which proved that this mine is a large-scale tantalum-niobium mine, making China an absolute "rare earth country" in the world, and people will never forget He's achievements. 1984, 30th Anniversary Achievement Exhibition of Baotou Steel, He and Ding Daoheng were recorded in the history of Baotou Steel. For a mineralogist, this is the highest reward of the people.
The discovery process of major rare earth minerals in China is as follows:
Since Professor Ding Daoheng discovered the Bayan Obo iron mine in 1927 and Professor He discovered that the Bayan Obo iron mine contains rare earth minerals in 1934, China geologists have been exploring and summarizing the characteristics of the evolution and development of geological structures in China, applying and establishing new metallogenic theories, and have discovered and proved a number of important rare earth deposits nationwide. In the early 1950s, the super-large Bayan Obo Fe-Nb-RE deposit was discovered and proved. In the mid-1960s, weathered residual (ion adsorption) rare earth deposits were discovered in Jiangxi and Guangdong. In the early 1970s, the Weishan rare earth mine in Shandong Province was discovered. In the mid-1980s, a large rare earth mine named "Maoniuping" in Liangshan, Sichuan Province was discovered. These discoveries and geological exploration results provide the most reliable resource guarantee for the development of China's rare earth industry. At the same time, it is concluded that the rare earth resources in China have the most basic characteristics, such as good metallogenic conditions, wide distribution, many genetic types of deposits, great resource potential, high content of valuable elements and great comprehensive utilization value.
So far, geologists have discovered thousands of mineral deposits, occurrences and concentrated mineralization areas in more than two-thirds of provinces (regions) in China. In addition to Baiyun Obo in Inner Mongolia, Gannan in Jiangxi, northern Guangdong and Liangshan in Sichuan, there are also rare earth resources in Shandong, Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi and Xinjiang. 98% of the total rare earth resources in China are distributed in Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Shandong and other regions, forming a distribution pattern of north, south, east and west, with the characteristics of light in the north and heavy in the south.