After two years of vigorous deliberations, the WTO's final verdict has gone against China on rare earth exports. However, many Chinese experts believe that although China went against WTO rules, the country had sound moral and ethical reasons for imposing export quotas.

To cater to high global demand, for years China has intensively extracted rare earths. And the resulting damage to the environment is plainly visible.

"As you can see, this area used to be green, but the uncontrolled mining has resulted in land erosion and geological disasters. Sometimes the tailings even contain radioactive materials hazardous to human health." Rare Earch miner said.

But mining is not just driven by global demand.

Experts say a lack of local regulation is also to blame. Many of the mining sites are run by small and private owners, who operate freely without care for environmental damage.

Some experts hope that the WTO’s ruling will force China to regulate the rampant rare earth mining inside its borders.

"We lose the battle, with a lot efforts involved. But in the meantime, we earned time to adjust the situation. For one, we are trying to centralize a number of rare earth operations by building group companies, instead of allowing a rampancy of extraction, processing and exporting." Prof Liu Baocheng, Univ. of Int'l Business and Economics said.

Professor Liu says it may still take years for China to fully regulate rare earth mining. But he warns that it could take generations for the land to fully recover if the problem of over-mining is not addressed now.