By product rare earth elements deposits in China and their resource potential

China is the biggest REE (rare earth elements) producer and host the most of the REE resource. Various types of REE deposits have been reported in China with the most important alkaline -carbonatite realted REE deposits and ion adsorption REE deposits together with sand deposits and REE as by-product in other type of deposits. The most of light rare earth elements resource comes from the carbonatite related deposits, while the heavy rare earth elements mainly come from ion adsorption type REE deposits. Other rare earth deposit types also include REE placer and byproduct REE deposits. At present, the development of rare earth resources in China is mainly for the carbonatite-alkaline rock type light REE deposits and the ion adsorption type heavy REE deposits. The REE in placer deposits of as by product in other deposits have not been effectively utilized. Based on the previous research, the types and resource potential of the byproduct REE in other deposits are summarized. The results show that the deposits with rare earth by product in China include mainly marine sedimentary phosphate deposits, coal, bauxite, magmatic P and Fe-P deposits. The most important and which with huge potential rare earth resources are the marine sedimentary phosphate deposits and bauxite deposits. The associated rare earth in bauxite is mainly light rare earth, and Sc. The heavy REE (including Y) in the sedimentary phosphate deposits, especially the REE in S-P-Al-Sr rich ores from upper layer of phosphorite in Sichuan Deyang area Shifang-style phosphous deposits which contain much higher REE (more than 1% REO) than phosphorite. The heavy REE accounted for about 50% of the total REE in S-P-Al-Sr rich ores together with a variety of other crytical metals. In addition, the REE associated with magmatic (iron) phosphate deposits, coal and gold deposits are also worth paying attention to. Due to the lack of detailed exploration data, the resource of the byproduct in varied deposits in China is unclear, and the comprehensive utilization and the technology of REE recovery and extraction need to be improved. Enhancing the REE resource evaluation and comprehensive utilization technologes for the deposits with REE byproducts and making full use of the associated rare earth resources in the working mines can effectively relieve the supply pressure of heavy rare earth resources in China, which is the future development direction.