Environmental problems and the ecological restoration of polluted land in ion-absorbed rare earth mine: A conceptual model

Longnan rare earth mines, typical ion-rare earth mines in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, South China, are selected as study area for polluted soil investigation and research. Reserves of ion-absorbed heavy rare earth of Longnan occupy 70% of all worlds’ heavy rare earth reserves, and Longnan County has been acclaimed as ‘hometown of heavy rare earth in China’. Rare earth mines in Longnan has been mined since 1970s and these mines were forbidden mining at 2002 for resource exhaustion. However, environmental problems remained by historical rare earth mining has increasingly serious bad influence on environment and health of residents around the mining area.