Kwangtung Province's "rare" metals economy was recently described.35 Most of the development occurred after the Cultural Revolution. Beneficiation and extraction technology related to 40-odd types of "rare" metals reportedly have been mastered. During the fourth 5-year plan (1971-75), output value increased threefold each year, to meet the needs of metallurgical, nuclear energy, chemical, electric, electronic, semiconductor, and "special area" industries. "Raw materials have been found from land to seashore and from the plains to the hills." Developments at the Pantan tin mine are worth mentioning. Discovered in 1958 for tin, this mine reportedly recovers about 11 types of byproducts which together constitute two-thirds of the mine's output value. Germanium used for defense purposes is a new byproduct recovered, and technology has progressed to a state that germanium recovery has reached 75 percent. Kwangtung Province is more than self-sufficient in "rare" metals. "China has developed by its efforts a fairly comprehensive and expanding, high-quality metals industry, basic to electronics, semiconductors, and special instruments and detectors. Surpluses of many metals are available for export. Tellurium, arsenic, cadmium, and gallium are produced at 99.9999 percent quality. Many more are produced in 99.999 percent quality, including copper, lead, zinc, tin, bismuth, cadmium, antimony, gallium, nickel, phosphorus, sulphur, boron, arsenic, and tellurium. Lithium for atomic energy and advanced-technology use is produced at 99.99 percent grade.' Industrial Minerals ASBESTOS 1936 Chinese production of asbestos remained at the approximate annual level of 150,000 tons. Shihmien in Szechuan, with about a dozen fairly up-to-date projects, continued to be the country's leading producer by far. A second major asbestos deposit is located at Penhsien, also in Szechuan. Shihmien's asbestos is of the long-fiber chrysotile variety. BARITE Chinese output of barite probably topped 300,000 metric tons in 1976, 7 percent of the world total. The steady gain in production is a reflection of the growing domestic market in oil and gas drilling. China seems to have extensive barite resources, and a surplus available for export. Chinese barite has been offered in world markets in three grades 90 percent, 95 percent, and 97 percent. CEMENT China's cement industry continued to expand, with production probably exceeding the 35 million-ton level in 1976. The country has at least 30 large cement plants capable of producing more than 200,000 metric tons per year, with four rated at more than a million tons. One of these large plants, a 700,000-tonner at Tangshan, was said to have been a casualty of the severe earthquake in late July. The French were helping to build a large cement plant, location 35 Takungpao (Peking). Aug. 17, 1976. p. 3. 36 Mining Annual Review 1976. London Mining Journal, p. 389. unknown. There are more than 30 other plants with capacity in excess of 100,000 annually. China has more than 3,000 small cement plants-one common category is the 3,000-7,000 tonners, and a second, 10,000-50,000 tonners. These plants account for more than half of the national output of cement. The Chinese claim that the small plant sector fulfilled the 1976 target 33 days ahead of schedule and produced about 7 percent more than in 1975. Apparently, Shantung led the provinces in "small cement plant" production, with output in 1975 reported at 2.44 million tons 37 and output in 1976 at least 20 percent higher. Kwangtung Province with 190 small cement. plants produced 12 percent more in 1976 than in 1975, and these small plants accounted for 70 percent of the province's cement output. DIAMONDS China's needs for industrial diamonds has steadily increased, particularly for drilling purposes. Up until 1971, most of the diamonds were imported. It was around this time when the Changte diamond mine in western Hunan was brought into production. In late 1973, synthetic diamond manufacture began, and now there may be a dozen synthetic diamond plants operating in China. It was said that synthetic diamond drill bits were used to drill China's deepest oil and gas drill hole-7,058 meters depth somewhere in Szechuan Province. However, Western commercial circles believe that Chinese synthetic diamonds are not of too good quality. In mid-1976, a large diamond deposit was found somewhere in Liaoning Province.3 FLUORSPAR 38 A prominent world producer and exporter of fluorspar, China's output in 1976 probably topped 350,000 metric tons. A large surplus has been traditionally exported, particularly to Japan and the Soviet Union. However, Japan's overall steelmaking and aluminum requirements on a unit output basis has been declining. On the other hand, PRC's domestic consumption is increasing. The United States reported receipt of a trial shipment of Chinese "high-grade lump" fluorspar in the customs return for July 1976, of about 6,300 tons. Most Chinese fluorspar is metallurgical grade, but a significant share is acid grade from the Taoling mine in Hunan Province. SALT There were no overall national claims for salt production by PRC for 1976, probably because of the earthquakes and other difficulties during the year. Several large salt fields are around the Pohai Bay, near the earthquake areas. However, there is no particular reason why these saltfields should be greatly affected. Apparently, the southern saltfields did well; comparing 1976 with 1975, Kwuantung's output was said to have increased by 40 percent and Hainan's output rose by 25 percent. Record production was also reported for Szechuan, Sinkiang, and Ninghsia Provinces. It is estimated that Chinese salt production in 1976 was at least 30 million tons. 37 New China News Agency (Peking). Nov. 16, 1976. Takungpao (Peking). July 25, 1976, p.l. SODA AND BORATES A comprehensive survey carried out by Chinese scientific workers on the Tsinghai-Tibet Plateau established the fact that Tibet has about 1,000 lakes covering nearly 30,000 square kilometers or a third of the country's total in lake area. Most lakes are brackish, many are deep, and a good number are dry. The lakes reportedly contain rich mineral and aquatic resources. Abundant deposits of salt, soda, sodium sulphate, and borax are found in many of the lakes in northern Tibet.39 The survey team under the Chinese Academy of Sciences further verified that one small salt lake contains 5 million tons of salt and 50 million tons of sodium sulphate. Fertilizers NITROGENOUS FERTILIZERS PRC China probably produced somewhere between 3 and 4 million metric tons of contained nitrogen (N) in 1976, already significant by world standards. Considering the growth of the oil and gas industry; the Program to build much more small nitrogenous plants, and the 13 new large foreign plants (including eight Kellogg plants located in the Provinces of Heilungkiang, Liaoning, Hopeh, Yunnan, Kweichow, Hupeh, Hunan, and Szechuan) in various stages of construction, the country's fertilizer production should reach 7 to 8 million tons of nitrogen by 1980. China is still greatly dependent upon imports of nitrogenous fertilizers, mainly from Japan. It happens that Sino-Japanese trade in fertilizers has been very important in world transactions. In 1975, Japan exported 1,169,000 metric tons urea-(46 percent N), 307,000 tons of ammonium sulfate-(21 percent N) and 499,000 tons of ammonium chloride (25 percent+N) to China, down considerably from the peak year of 1973. The agreement for the first half year of 1977 was for Japan to ship 500,000 tons of urea and 200,000 tons of ammonium sulfate to China. The Chinese also negotiated additional contracts to purchase over 300,000 tons of urea from east European countries in 1976, plus significant amounts of ammonium sulfate from west European countries. In addition to about a dozen large nitrogenous fertilizer plants that have been in operation for some time, plus a similar number of large plants now being built, China has more than 1,200 small- and mediumsized nitrogenous plants scattered around the country. In 1975, small plants provided 58 percent of China's total synthetic ammonia output. Production from small plants further increased sharply in 1976. A typical small plant is one which produces 3,000 to 5,000 tpy of aqueous ammonia or ammonium bicarbonate. Medium-sized plants may produce 50,000 to 100,000 tpy. Shantung has become the leading nitrogenous fertilizer producing province in China. In 1976, there were about 120 small nitrogenous plants plus one large plant. In early 1977, the Shengli general petrochemical complex associated with the oilfield of the same name was placed in full-scale operation, and it has two chemical fertilizer plants, in addition to oil refineries and plants producing synthetic rubber and 29 New China News Agency (Peking). Apr. 28, 1977. 40 petrochemicals. The Taching oilfield also recently completed a large chemical fertilizer plant based upon natural gas, capable of producing a million tons of various fertilizers annually. Szechuan Province has nearly 100 small nitrogenous plants plus a number of large plants, all based upon natural gas. Kwangtung Province also has a growing number of fertilizer plants, particularly small ones. PHOSPHATES China's phosphate rock resources are widespread throughout the eastern and southern areas of the country. Most of the deposits are sedimentary rather than igneous in origin. Reserves are large, but the quality is uneven and often low grade. The best known deposits are located in the provinces of Yunnan, Kweichow, Hunan, and Hupeh. In Yunnan there are open pit and underground mines in the Kunming and Kunyang areas and probably apatite deposits near the Vietnam border. The Kaiyang region of Kweichow, with more than one large mine, has been worked for a decade. Liuyang, Shihmen, and Huachiao are known locations of phosphate mining in Hunan where output has risen tenfold since 1965. The Chinghsiang mine in Hupeh had an annual capacity of 600,000 tpy of phosphate rock. A 20-million-ton phosphate deposit may have been discovered in the Chaoy anglin area of Kiangsi Province. Phosphates are found in many localities in Foshan, Kwangtung Province. A large deposit of high grade ore was recently reported for the Hsuai-yi-ling area on the shores of Tatu River in Szechnan Province. A large phosphate rock deposit has been found at Fanshan, Chulu Hsien, Hopeh Province." This deposit is said to be the largest of its kind found in North China, and will mean that phosphate rock from faraway Hunan and Kweichow Provinces will no longer have to be shipped in. Actually Shantung has many small phosphate operations also. PRC China's phosphate rock production may have risen to about 4 million tpy. A few years ago imports may have reached 2 million tpy, mainly from Morocco and the Lao Cay apatite deposit in northern Vietnam. When Morocco tripled its price, Chinese imports dwindled to small tonnages. Morocco has since cut its prices, perhaps making it again attractive to import high grade ore. The bulk of the phosphate rock supply is converted to chemical phosphates, although some is directly applied in the ground form. China has about 1,500 small phosphates plants (430 in Shantung Province) which together produce three-quarters of the country's chemical phosphate production totaling possibly 10 million tpy. Relatively large superphosphate plants that have been mentioned in the press include Nanking, Changsha in Hunan, Hunghochou in Yunnan, Shanghai, Taiyuan in Shansi, Canton and Chanchiang in Kwangtung, and Tunghsiang in Kiangsi. 40 Takungpao (Peking). Dec. 29, 1976. 41 New China News Agency. Jan. 21, 1977. 4. The hydroelectric and thermal powerplants of 30 megawatts and higher... 5. Typical thermal power station_ - 427 433 6. Electric power equipment manufacturing plants-- 434 TABLES 1. Electric power generating capacity, 1949-77. 407 2. Electric power generation plant and equipment purchased by China, 1972-76- 408 3. Milestones in Chinese electric power development.. 410 4. Electric power generating capacity by province, December 31, 19775. Electric power generated, 1949-77 412 413 6. Major Chinese hydroelectric systems... 418 7. Required electric power generating capacity to support industrial growth rates of 8, 10, and 12 percent, 1978-2000_. 422 |