On the heels of a government decision to slash its rare earth materials export quota by 35 percent in 2011, Chinese Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi announced that the nation would tighten controls on rare earth mining, limiting its exports to conserve resources and protect the environment. The new rules, which are expected to be issued as early as February, will limit pollutants allowed in waste water and emissions of radioactive elements and phosphorus. The United States has threatened to complain about the quotas to the World Trade Organization, but China has said that other countries must share the burden of mining the metals, which have hurt its environment and depleted its resources. According to Bloomberg, China has about 30 percent of rare earths deposits but currently produces about 97 percent of the world's supply. Canada, Australia, and the United States also have rare earth materials but stopped mining them in the 1990s. For the full story, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-07/report-china-preparing-new-rare-earths-standards.html and http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7060S620110107. For a New York Times story on illegal rare earth mining in Southern China, see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/business/global/30smugglebar.html?src=busln.