Shining points of China’s tungsten resources
Characteristics of China’s tungsten resources are described below:
1) Rich reserves and highly concentrated distribution.China has obtained a cumulative explored tungsten reserve of over 6.00 million tons, and still possesses a high potential and good prospects in the search for more tungsten ores and resources. In the recent 20 years, large or superlarge deposits have continuously been discovered in the tungsten or W-polymetallic mineralization-concentrated areas of the Nanling, East Qinling and West Qinling-Qilian metallogenic belts. In particular, some large or superlarge deposits, or ore segments and orebodies have been found at the depth or periphery of the mines under operation in southern Hunan, southern Jiangxi, northern Guangdong and other parts of the Nanling metallogenic belt.
Highly concentrated distribution of reserves and ore districts is a major characteristic of China’s tungsten resources. Its tungsten reserves are amassed mainly in 6 provinces or autonomous regions: Hunan, Jiangxi, Henan, Fujian, Guangxi and Guangdong, which own 83.4% of the country’s total tungsten reserve (the first three provinces make up 66.7% of the total), and its large and superlarge deposits mostly occur in the first three provinces.
2) A complete set of deposit types and a large variety of metallogenic processes. Up to now, almost all known genetic types of tungsten deposits in the world, except the modern hot-spring sedimentary and W-bearing brine-evaporite deposits, have been discovered in China. The diversification and common alternation of metallogenic processes of the country’s tungsten deposits have resulted not only in the formation of complex and varied deposit types but also in the common coexistence of multiple types of deposits (or orebodies) in any single ore field (or deposit). Besides, there are also modern supergene tungsten deposits of oxidation-leaching type and alluvial-placer type (see Table 3.12.2).
Table 3.12.2 Genetic types of tungsten deposits in China (Kang Yongfu et al., 1994)Henan Hongxing Mining Machinery Co., Ltd is the professional manufacturer of complete sets of mining machinery, for example,hammer crusher,flotation cells Welcome all of you to visit our official website.feed grizzly:http://www.hx-crusher.com/vibrating_feeder.html
3) Multiple associated components and high multipurpose utilization rate.A lot of tungsten deposits in China are associated with useful components that number as many as more than 30. They include primarily Sn, Mo, Bi, Cu, Pb, Zn, Au and Ag, and subordinately S, Be, Li, Nb, Ta, rare earths, Cd, In, Ga, Sc, Le, As, fluorite, etc. Comprehensively recovering these components in the process of ore mining, dressing and smelting is important not only for rationally developing and utilizing the mineral resources but for improving the economic efficiency of the ore mining.
4) Less rich ore, more lean ore, and low ore grade.Of China’s retained ore reserve, only 20% (mainly quartz vein-type wolframite ore) grades over 0.5% (WO3); of the country’s industrial reserve of scheelite ores, only about 2% has a grade higher than 0.5%. Compared with tungsten ores in foreign countries, China’s scheelite ore is inferior in quality, but its wolframite ore is superior (higher in grade, larger in deposit size, and easier for mining and dressing).
5) The ores developed and utilized are commonly of wolframite and less commonly of scheelite.Wolframite has long been the target of mining in China, but of its tungsten reserve, scheelite ore is more and wolframite ore is less. Statistics indicate that, of the country’s total retained tungsten ore reserve (5.2742 million tons) obtained as of the end of 1997, 71.2% is scheelite ore, 26.3% is wolframite ore, and 2.5% mixed ore. Although the scheelite ore reserve is much, the rich ore of scheelite is little, the grade is low, and the refractory ore is abundant. Furthermore, the production of scheelite ore occupies only about 10% of the total tungsten output of the country. The ore reserve of wolframite, though less than that of scheelite, includes more high-grade ore and can be easily mined and dressed. In addition, the production of wolframite ore makes up over 90% of the country’s total tungsten output.
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