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Events/Discovery · 1927

Bayan Obo iron deposit found

Discovery, 1927, China.

What happened

USGS says the Bayan Obo deposit was first found as an iron deposit in 1927 and later recognised as a polymetallic iron-rare earth-niobium deposit. It is described as the world's largest known rare earth ore deposit and holds at least 1,500 Mt of iron reserves.1,2

Why it matters

Bayan Obo is the source of much of China's rare earth supply.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Kiruna Mine: inception

    Kiruna Mine: inception.3

  2. Ofoten Line opens (Narvik)

    Ofoten Line opens (Narvik).4

  3. Lang Hancock born

    Lang Hancock born (date from Wikidata).5

  4. Bayan Obo iron deposit found

    Bayan Obo is the source of much of China's rare earth supply.1,2

  5. Commonwealth bans iron ore exports

    The ban held back the Pilbara until 1960.6,7

  6. Vale founded

    Vale founded.8

  7. Sweden sends 10.1 Mt of iron ore to Germany

    Germany took 10,085,817 t, and Narvik shipments were up about 70 per cent on 1942.9,10

  8. Lang Hancock spots iron ore in the Hamersley Range

    It led to the Pilbara iron ore industry once the embargo ended.6,11,12

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Where next

Mines

Located inBayan OboSee the mine behind this story: Bayan Obo.1

Places

Came out ofBaotouBayan Obo was found in 1927 as an iron deposit and became China's rare earth source.1

Sources

  1. Bulletin 2143, Bayan Obo: Introduction US Geological Survey
  2. Bayan Obo Mining District (item Q8895769), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q2602547 (Kiruna Mine: inception)
  4. Wikidata item Q1082916 (Ofoten Line opens (Narvik))
  5. Wikidata item Q1804844 (Lang Hancock)
  6. Iron Ore (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  7. Canberra (item Q3114), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  8. Wikidata item Q583268 (Vale founded)
  9. Foreign Relations of the United States 1944 vol. IV, document 443 (Swedish iron ore exports) US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  10. Wikidata item Q2602547 (Kiruna Mine)
  11. Lang Hancock (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  12. Hamersley Range (item Q1573394), coordinate location P625 Wikidata

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Autonomous trucks by RobSimmons223311, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).