Xinjiang Asia-Europe Rare Metal Co.

Lithium

Asia-Europe Rare Metal Co. has the capacity to produce 1,200 tons of lithium metal, which amounts to 20% of China’s lithium production. The company or its predecessors have been mining and processing lithium in the XUAR since 1958. With the advent of lithium-ion batteries, the company’s focus has also turned to identifying new energy applications.

Xinjiang Asia-Europe Rare Metal Co.’s customers are some of the top lithium companies in the world.

As subsidiaries of the state-owned Xinjiang Nonferrous Metals Group, Xinjiang Asia-Europe Rare Metal Co and Ürümchi Asia-Europe Rare Metal Co. are deeply implicated in the region’s state-sponsored labor transfer program. Xinjiang Nonferrous is not merely a participant in the labor transfer programs but played a critical role in facilitating the program, moving transferred laborers to its own factories, and creating locked down training programs for the workers compelled to participate in the programs.

In 2017, Asia-Europe Rare Metal was part of a labor program that aimed to transfer more than 3,200 “surplus laborers” to the Midong District of Ürümchi in one year, in an effort to induce farmers to “go to work in other industries and enterprises, so that they can leave the land and become industrial workers.” Asia-Europe does not typically hire low-skilled workers, but it made an exception and lowered its job qualification criteria to accept laborer transfers with junior high educations.