The clay minerals from the weathered crust rare earth ores of six areas in Jiangxi Province were studied for better understanding the effects of clay minerals on the rare earth fraction. The powder X-ray diffraction(XRD), infrared spectroscopy(IR) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) results show that platy kaolinite and tubular 7Å halloysite are predominant constitutions in clays. Kaolinite and 7Å halloysite are dominant in ABT, CKW, SB, YC samples and ZD sample respectively, and both of them are abundant in SP sample. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS) analysis indicates that rare earth elements tend to be concentrated in clay minerals. The rare earth distribution patterns are influenced by both the original rock and the properties of clay minerals. A positive Ce-anomaly has been found in ZD and SP samples compared with a negative Ce-anomaly in other samples, which might be correlated to the well developed halloysite in these two samples. It is possible for Ce to be present as cerianite which is coating halloysite needles and/or be selectively absorbed by hallyosite which has higher specific surface area and cation exchange capacity than kaolinite.