Satellite assessment of ecological condition and associated recovery constraints in China's main ion adsorption rare earth mining landscape from 2000 to 2025

In Ganzhou, China, ion adsorption rare earth mining sites are registered only as points, which do not show where recovery lags. We assessed ecological condition with a Remote Sensing Ecological Index adapted to mining (M-RSEI), harmonized across Landsat sensors. Mean M-RSEI rose gradually from 0.598 in 2000–2005 to 0.670 in 2020–2025, and three quarters of the cells improved. Forest fraction, soil organic carbon and slope led the environmental variables, which explained 63% of the variance under spatial cross validation. Location and spatially varying responses accounted for 44% of GeoShapley attribution. Forest fraction led at every grain up to 3 km, and averaging 100 m predictions to 5 km raised R2 to 0.94 without refitting. Near sites, cells last exposed at least 16 years before 2020 remained 0.26 M-RSEI units below never exposed cells. Cells far below empirical upper envelopes are candidates for field checks and reclamation.