The largest rare earth smelter of ShandaongProvince,Linzi Rare Earth Smelter,has re-cently announced its decision to cut productiondue to sliding prices of rare earth products.De-spite of a separation capacity of 10,000 tons ofmixed rare earth chloride,the smelter has onlyprocessed 7,000 tons of rare earth chloride in2002,down 30 percent from 2001. The largest rare earth smelter of Shandaong Province, Linzi Rare Earth Smelter, has re-cently announced its decision to cut productiondue to sliding prices of rare earth products. De-spite of a separation capacity of 10,000 tons of mixed rare earth chloride, the smelter has onlyprocessed 7,000 tons of rare earth chloride in 2002, down 30 percent from 2001.