Baiyin is an industry-oriented city where the industrial output has always ranked second in Gansu province, with non-ferrous metals, coal, electric power and chemicals as its leading industries.

Non-ferrous metals

Baiyin is a national key base of the non-ferrous metals industry. Over the 40-plus years of business development since the first five-year plan period(1953-1957), a comparatively complete system of non-ferrous metal production has been established here.

This system covers geology, infrastructure, mining, ore dressing, smelting, processing, comprehensive utilization and research. Baiyin Non-ferrous Metals Company produces over 40 different products, including copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, zinc-based alloys, precious metals, ore dressing reagents, salt fluoride, and sulfuric acid.

Thirty-eight kinds of products were awarded superior products title on the national, provincial and ministerial levels. These products benefit thousands of customers, and some of them are exported to the United States, Japan, Australia, Britain as well as other countries and regions.

Chemical industry

The city annually produces about 500,000 tons of sulfuric acid, 7,900 tons of ore dressing reagents, 42,000 tons of salt fluoride and 30,000 tons of sodium carbonate, as well as over 50,000 tons of sodium dichromate, hydrochloric acid, barium sulfate, zinc oxide, caustic soda, sodium sulfate, and other chemical products.

Energy base

The city houses more than 1.5 billion tons of proven coal reserves, and produces 10 million tons of coal annually, accounting for one-third of the total output of raw coal in the province.

After more than 20 years of development, Jingyuan Coal Co Ltd (formerly known as Jingyuan Mining), as a major coal producer in the country, reaches an annual production capacity of 6.66 million tons.

Through years of efforts, Baiyin city now has a total installed thermal power capacity of 170 kilowatts which accounts for 24 percent of Gansu province’s total capacity, and also has 300 kWs of exploitable hydropower, thus establishing an energy landscape consisting of both “thermal power and hydropower”.

Rare earth

Rare earth is known as "industrial MSG". Gansu Rare Earth Group Co, the only class-A national enterprise in the rare earth industry, mainly produces rare earth and related chemical products. It enjoys the right of dealing in the self-managed import and export business, owns a provincially-certified enterprise technology center, and has six national patents.

With an annual output of nearly 30,000 tons of rare earth chloride, it is Asia’s top company in the rare earth industry. The company’s "Panda" brand rare earth products are sold to more than 600 domestic users, and also exported to Japan, the United States, France, the Netherlands, and other countries and regions.

Wires and cables

Gansu Changtong Cable Group is a wire and cable products manufacturer in Northwest China. It is also one of Gansu’s core enterprises in terms of importance and output. Its "Dunhuang" trademark is well-known in Gansu. The company has developed more than 45 new products and technologies in recent years. Some new products have won awards for scientific and technological progress at the national, provincial and ministerial level.