He said British Fluorspar were confident the cause was the collapse of an old mine shaft and not new mines being worked in the area.

The ruling affects China’s exports of certain forms of bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide, silicon metal, yellow phosphorous and zinc.

Besides bauxite, zinc and yellow phosphorus, the other six industrial minerals are coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide and silicon metal.