On the morning of November 5, the rare earth senior talent training course sponsored by the Ministry of Industry officially opened in the fourth teaching building of Beijing University.

Zhong Bai's mood was a little excited, because this was the first time he had met Academician Xu Guangxian, known as the "Father of Rare Earths in China".

Compared with the impression in his memory, the current academician Xu Guangxian is obviously much younger, at the age of 62, his hair is not completely gray, and the whole person looks quite energetic.

"Hello everyone, students of the rare earth senior talent training class!" Academician Xu's voice was as powerful as Hong Zhong: "Before this training class officially starts, I will introduce myself. ”

I saw Academician Xu pick up the chalk, turn around and write on the blackboard the big "Xu Guangxian" three regular script fonts, put down the chalk, turned around and propped up on the lectern with both hands, glanced at the 20 students below, and said slowly: "My name is Xu Guangxian, 62 years old this year, and I am currently a professor at Jingcheng University, focusing on the research of rare earth separation, rare earth metallurgy and other related rare earth industries. ”

"Next, I'll take a roll call first, please stand up for the students who have been clicked, and if you meet for the first time, please briefly introduce yourself." Xu Guang picked up the roster first and began to take a serious roll call: "Mi Bin!" ”

"Here!" A young cadre, about twenty-seven or eighteen, stood up.

He wore a somewhat trendy autumn and winter thick jacket, and introduced himself loudly: "Professor Xu, all the students here, hello everyone! My name is Mi Bin and I am from Hujiang Taiding Alloy Factory. ”

Hujiang City?

Taiding Alloy Factory? This is a private enterprise!

The name immediately evoked Zhong Bai's memories.

If I remember correctly, the alloy plant was acquired in the early 90s by Huaguo Rare Earth, an H-share listed company with a market capitalization of more than HK$2 billion in 2020.

This Mi Bin was able to represent Taiding Alloy Factory to participate in the national rare earth talent advanced training course with only 20 places, obviously his usual work performance is very good, otherwise at his age, it is impossible to have this opportunity.

Because looking at it, in a group of students, except for Zhong Bai, this Mi Bin is the youngest.

Sure enough, the following self-introduction confirmed Zhong Bai's conjecture.

"My name is Feng Weiming, I am forty-two years old this year, and I am from the South China Metallurgical General Plant......

"Hello everyone, I am Lu Junwei, thirty-seven years old, from Mindong Rare Earth Research Institute......"

“……”

After the twenty students introduced themselves, Zhong Bai roughly brushed them, there are a total of eighteen people in the system, and there are two who are not established, one of them is Mi Bin, and the other is Yan Yutian from Lingnan Yuanfu Rare Earth New Materials Company.

This percentage, judging from the participation in the training courses organized by the ministry in 1982, is fully in line with the current situation.

It can even be said that there are two people outside the system who have been surprised by Zhong Bai, but this also makes Zhong Bai more and more curious about the identities of the two.

After all, it is a training course organized by the Ministry of Industry, why there are two talents from outside the system, which in itself is very reminiscent, isn't it?

Of course, Zhong Bai also received a wave of surprised glances when he got up to introduce himself.

Because the age of twenty-three years old is too young, a little too young!

You must know that some seniors at Jingcheng University are older than Zhong Bai.

But at this time, no one stood up to question anything, everyone knew the rules very well, Academician Xu asked everyone to introduce themselves, but did not let everyone judge each other, and the basic classroom discipline was still maintained very well.

Xu Guangxian felt that the self-introduction link was almost over, so he started the first lesson of today: "The rare earth industry is one of the most strategically valuable industrial industries in China, and I have a personal comment on this, that is, ......"

Hearing this, Zhong Bai in the audience couldn't help but subconsciously read silently in his mouth: "There is oil in the Middle East, and China has rare earth ......."

"There is oil in the Middle East, and China has rare earths." Xu Guangxian really said: "I know that all of you here are outstanding talents recommended by various provinces and municipalities, but I took a look at it, there should be no students I have taken before, so it is necessary to explain to you the current situation of China's rare earth industry here." ”

"China currently has the world's largest proven rare earth reserves, and according to my predictions, it will be difficult for any other country to shake this position in 15 years. However, the development of our country's rare earth industry is far behind those developed countries, and it can even be said that Huaguo is still in the primary stage of the rare earth industry! ”

"In addition to mining, we have no more than 5% of the enterprises with rare earth primary separation capacity in the country, and more than 99% of the rare earth products we export every year are rare earth concentrates, and most of the precious foreign exchange obtained from these rare earth ores are transferred by the state to purchase processed rare earth products."

"Why is that? Because our country's rare earth separation technology is still relatively backward. Since you are able to participate in this training course, I believe that I do not need to repeat the definition of rare earth element separation here. ”

"Therefore, my personal focus in the past two years has been to promote the 'cascade extraction method', a rare earth element separation method invented by our Chinese people, which has been verified enough to prove its practicability since the successful experiment in early 1978."

"However, it has been implemented relatively slowly in recent years...... Xu Guangxian paused here, and his face became a lot more serious: "At present, relevant domestic enterprises still put this technology in the theoretical research stage, and have not really implemented it in the production process, let alone promoted it." This is one of the fundamental reasons why this training course was organized this time! ”

Hearing this, the N students in the audience had already shown confused expressions.

Including the "cascade extraction method", everyone understands the previous content.

But then it feels very unfamiliar!

"Do you know why?" Xu Guang first glanced at the audience and asked, "I hope someone can answer it." ”

Of course, Zhong Bai knows the answer.

Because of the high cost of the "cascade extraction method" implemented by Xu Guangxian at the beginning, many companies feel that they need to invest too much after detailed calculations, and they cannot see the prospect of recovering the cost in the short term!

At present, we only need to increase the amount of rare earth concentrate collected and sold to earn enough foreign exchange, so why do we have to engage in elemental separation?

Isn't that a thankless task?

Just when Zhong Bai secretly bowed his head and lamented the short-sightedness of enterprises in this era, Xu Guangxian on the stage suddenly shouted at him.

"Since no one takes the initiative, I'll designate a classmate to answer first, Zhong Bai!"