Bayan Obo Mining District, , or Baiyun-Obo or Baiyun'ebo, is a mining town in the west of Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...

, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Baotou

Baotou

Baotou is a mid-sized industrial city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, its urban areas are home to a population of approximately 1.78 million, with a total population of over 2.65 million accounting for counties under...

 City, more than 120 kilometres (74.6 mi) to the south.

The mines north of the town are the largest deposits of rare earth

Rare earth element

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium...

metals yet found and, as of 2005, responsible for 45% of global rare earth metal production.