A joint Foreign Policy/IEEE Spectrum report details how China's dominance in rare-earth elements relies heavily on monazite ore, much of it from the Bayan Obo mine near Baotou, Inner Mongolia. The report notes that decades of processing monazite for rare earths produced the Weikuang Dam tailings lake, a highly polluted, radioactive site, and that China now bans stand-alone monazite mining due to the environmental damage it caused.
spectrum.ieee.org
· 2026-10-15
In Ulanqab, a farming region in Inner Mongolia known as China's 'potato capital', large-scale data centre construction is underway alongside agricultural land. Workers described the project as proceeding in multiple phases, with one phase completed roughly every year and more planned. These facilities are intended to provide the computing power behind China's AI ambitions.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-09-22
BBC correspondent Laura Bicker visited data centre sites in Inner Mongolia, part of a wave of construction underpinning China's AI ambitions. Her report contrasts public attitudes toward data centre development in China with those in the US, coming just before a planned meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Washington.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-09-22
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