China exported 1457 tonnes of rare earths in January, down 49 percent from a year earlier reports the Beijing Times.

The report, citing a source at the General Administration of Customs, notes that the total value of rare earth exports in the month totalled 124 million yuan, down 49.5 per cent from a year earlier.

According to previously released data from Hohhot customs in Inner Mongolia, China exported a total of 28,000 tonnes of rare earth in 2014, an increase of 27.3 per cent.

Despite the increase in exports, the total value was 2.3 billion yuan, down 35.6 per cent.

Inner Mongolia is home to China's most productive rare earth mine and accounts for about 87 per cent of total global rare earth reserves.

China ended a decade-old quota system limiting exports of rare-earth minerals in January. The quota system had been at the center of a World Trade Organisation dispute which the country lost in 2013.