Environmental damages and control measures in exploiting ion-absorbed rare earth ores of South China

Three kinds of mining technologies of the ion-absorbed rare earth, including pool dip, heap leaching and in-situ leaching are described by comparing the environment destruction, resource utilization, extraction efficiency of the three technologies. The environmental damages in the mining process are classified into geological environment damage, air environment damage, water environment damage and soil environment damage. The prevention and control measures are put forward from the aspects of technologies, ecological restoration and safety management. It is recommended that further study should be performed on the basic theory of in -situ leaching process, including short flow, seepage field evolution and law of ore strength weakening, conversion and secondar)r migration rule of rare heavy metal ions and ammonia nitrogen pollution. The research on the high efficient and new exploitation technique, new leaching agent and new soil conditioner can promote sustainable development of ion-absorbed rare earth ore industry.