Abstract: Chinese rare earth minerals are divided into mineral type rare earth ores and weathering type rare earth ores. The former is mostly distributed in the north and its rare earth partitioning mainly chooses light rare earths. Flotation is the main method of utilization for mineral type rare earth ores in industry. The weathering type rare earth ores rich in middle and heavy rare earth is mainly produced in the south of China, which is usually recovered by ammonium salt through the chemical leaching technology. At present, the poor selectivity of flotation reagents and the low recovery of flotation process become the serious problem in industry. Due to the application of ammonia salt as leaching agent, ammonia pollution needs to be solved in the process of weathered crust rare earth ores. In this study, the properties of this two typical rare earth ores and the recovery technology were summarized. The research progress and development trend of green development for the two kinds of minerals are introduced from two aspects including recovery technology and green reagents. The development direction of efficient and clean technology for rare earth ores in the future is also predicted.