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Which mineral resources in our country have the largest reserves in the world?

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2020-08-11 10:29

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Which mineral resources in our country have the largest reserves in the world?
Which mineral resources in our country have the largest reserves in the world?

Which mineral resources in our country have the largest reserves in the world?

Mining Exchange  
China is a country with vast territory, superior mineral geological conditions, a complete range of mineral types, and abundant total resources, making it a major mineral resource country with its own resource characteristics.

From the perspective of mineral formation, the three major mineral formation regions in the world all enter China, so mineral resources are rich and the types of minerals are relatively complete. Our country has discovered 171 types of minerals, of which 156 types have proven reserves, ranking third in the world in potential value. Based on proven reserves, China has 45 advantageous minerals, some of which have quite rich reserves, such as rare earth metals, tungsten, tin, molybdenum, antimony, bismuth, sulfur, magnesite, boron, and coal, all of which rank among the top in the world.

 

 

Among them, five types of minerals have the largest reserves in the world; let's take a look at which minerals they are.

Tungsten Ore
01

China is the country with the richest tungsten ore resources in the world, with 252 proven mining sites distributed across 23 provinces (regions). In terms of provinces (regions), Hunan (mainly white tungsten) and Jiangxi (mainly black tungsten) have the most, with reserves accounting for 33.8% and 20.7% of the national total, respectively; followed by Henan, Guangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, and other provinces (regions).

 

Major tungsten mining areas include the Shizhu Garden tungsten mine in Hunan, Xihua Mountain, Dajishan, Pangu Mountain, Guimei Mountain, Lianhuashan tungsten mine in Guangdong, Xingluokeng tungsten mine in Fujian, Ta'ergou tungsten mine in Gansu, and Sandaozhuang aluminum-tungsten mine in Henan.
 
Dayu County in Jiangxi Province is known as the "Tungsten Capital" of the world. There are more than 400 scattered tungsten mining points there. After the Opium War, Germans were the first to discover tungsten there, secretly buying mining rights for only 500 yuan. Patriotic citizens discovered this and rose up to protect the mines. After multiple negotiations, the mining rights were finally reclaimed in 1908 for 1,000 yuan, and funds were raised for mining. This was the earliest tungsten mining industry in southern Jiangxi.

 

Core and specimens of the Dangping tungsten mine in Dayu County, Jiangxi Province.
 

02
  Antimony Ore

 

Antimony is a silver-gray metal with anti-corrosion properties. The main role of antimony in alloys is to increase hardness, often referred to as a hardening agent for metals or alloys. China is one of the earliest countries in the world to discover and utilize antimony ore. Ancient texts such as the "Book of Han" and "Records of the Grand Historian" mention antimony, which was not called antimony at that time but referred to as "lianxi".

 

After the founding of New China, large-scale geological exploration and development of antimony ore were carried out, and the volatilization smelting of antimony sulfide concentrates was developed. China ranks first in the world in both antimony ore reserves and production, exporting a large amount and producing high-purity antimony metal (containing 99.999% antimony) and high-quality special-grade antimony white, representing the advanced production level of the global antimony industry.
 
China has the largest reserves of antimony resources in the world, accounting for 52% of the global total. Currently, 171 antimony mines have been proven, mainly distributed in Hunan, Guangxi, Tibet, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Gansu, with the total proven resource reserves in these six provinces accounting for 87.2% of the total proven resource reserves. The province with the largest antimony resource reserves is Hunan, where the Xikuangshan mine is the largest antimony mine in the world, with annual antimony production accounting for one-third of the national total.

 

The United States heavily relies on imports of this resource from our country, which is even more precious than rare earths. It is reported that 60% of the antimony ore imported by the United States comes from our country. As China's international status rises, it has gradually gained some discourse power. In 2002, China proposed to implement a "quota system" for exported antimony ore, firmly holding the resources in its own hands for the development of its own country's scientific research.

 

Bentonite
03

 

Bentonite is a valuable non-metallic mineral resource, mainly composed of montmorillonite with a layered structure. Due to its series of excellent properties such as expansibility, adsorption, suspension, dispersion, ion exchange, stability, and thixotropy, bentonite has over 1,000 uses, hence it is also known as "universal clay"; it can be processed into binders, suspending agents, thixotropic agents, catalysts, clarifying agents, adsorbents, chemical carriers, and applied in various fields, earning it the title of "universal material."
China has very rich bentonite mineral resources, with predicted resource amounts exceeding 7 billion tons. There is a complete variety, including both calcium-based and sodium-based bentonite, as well as hydrogen-based, aluminum-based, sodium-calcium-based, and unclassified bentonite. Sodium-based bentonite has proven reserves of 58,633.4 million tons, accounting for 24% of the total reserves; the prospective reserves of sodium-based bentonite are 35,158.6 million tons; types other than calcium and sodium-based bentonite, such as aluminum and hydrogen-based, account for about 42%.

 

04
  Titanium 

In terms of reserves, it is estimated that the total amount of ilmenite and rutile resources in the world exceeds 2 billion tons, with economically extractable reserves of 770 million tons. Among the clearly defined titanium resource reserves globally, ilmenite accounts for 94%, while the rest is rutile. China has the largest reserves of ilmenite, with reserves of 220 million tons, accounting for 28.6% of the global total, followed by Australia, India, and South Africa in second to fourth place. In terms of production, the top four countries in global titanium ore production in 2016 were South Africa, China, Australia, and Mozambique.
In 2016, the distribution of global titanium ore reserves in China was spread across more than 10 provinces. Titanium ores mainly include titanium ore from vanadium-titanium magnetite, rutile, and titanium iron sand. The titanium in vanadium-titanium magnetite is mainly produced in the Panzhihua area of Sichuan. Rutile is mainly produced in provinces such as Hubei, Henan, and Shanxi. Titanium iron sand is mainly produced in provinces (regions) such as Hainan, Yunnan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. The TiO2 reserves of titanium iron ore are 357 million tons, ranking first in the world.

 

Rare Earth Ore
05

 

China is a major country in global rare earth resource reserves, not only rich in reserves but also possessing a complete range of ore types and rare earth elements, high rare earth grades, and reasonable distribution of mining sites, laying a solid foundation for the development of China's rare earth industry.

 

China's main rare earth mines include: Baiyun Obo Rare Earth Mine, Shandong Weishan Rare Earth Mine, Mianning Rare Earth Mine, Jiangxi Weathered Crust Leaching Rare Earth Mine, Hunan Brown Yttrium Niobium Mine, and coastal sand mines along the long coastline, etc.

 

The Baiyun Obo Rare Earth Mine coexists with iron, with the main rare earth minerals being fluorocarbon cerium ore and monazite, in a ratio of 3:1, both reaching the rare earth recovery grade, hence called mixed ore, with a total rare earth reserve (REO) of 35 million tons, accounting for about 38% of the world's reserves, making it the largest rare earth mine in the world.
The Weishan Rare Earth Mine and Mianning Rare Earth Mine are mainly composed of fluorocarbon cerium ore, accompanied by barite, and are a relatively simple and easily selectable type of rare earth mine.

 

The Jiangxi weathered crust leaching rare earth mine is a new type of rare earth ore, which is relatively simple to select and has a high content of medium and heavy rare earths, making it a highly competitive rare earth mine in the market.

 

China's coastal sand is also extremely rich, with the coastline of the South China Sea and the coastlines of Hainan Island and Taiwan Island being known as the golden coast of coastal sand accumulation, containing both modern sedimentary sand mines and ancient sand mines, among which monazite and phosphorite are recovered as by-products when processing coastal sand for titanium iron ore and zircon.

 

Although China's mineral resources are very rich, the per capita amount is only 58% of the world average, ranking 53rd in the world. Moreover, the characteristics of China's resource endowment are that there are many poor ores and difficult-to-extract, difficult-to-select, and difficult-to-smelt ores. Most of the proven reserves of bulk minerals such as bauxite are poor ores. In addition, the over-exploitation of advantageous minerals such as tungsten ore, most of which are used for export, has led to low prices for mineral products and resource waste, necessitating further efforts to strengthen regulation, protect resources, ensure development, and establish global discourse power over advantageous mineral resources.

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