China is promoting conservation and comprehensive utilization of tungsten ore resource

Aug. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- Chinese Government attaches great importance to rational development and utilization of tungsten ore resources. As early as 1991, the State Council issued the "State Council publication on classifying tungsten, tin, antimony, rare earth ions as  specified minerals of national protective mineral mining" ([1991] No. 5),  in order to classify tungsten as specific mineral in the implementation of protective exploitation, and implementing total control of tungsten mining. In 2001, after China's accession to WTO, China still remains trade management of tungsten and tungsten products. Presently, There 13 kinds of tungsten products classified as specifics of state trading export of product management. There are 12 Chinese state enterprises owning export qualification.
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According to the principles like "interests of national security or social welfare benefits", "domestic supply or for the effective protection of exhaustible domestic resources” in “Foreign trade law”, China implements export quota management of tungsten.
Tungsten mining in China has been nearly a century, especially after the 1949 reform and opening up, and tungsten mine production scale, technology development capability has reached a high level. Remarkable achievements have been achieved In mining process methods, technical equipment, ventilation, dust, ground pressure control, mineral processing methods, flotation reagent, fine mud treatment and comprehensive recovery of associated mineral resources. The overall level of development and utilization of tungsten mineral resources were significantly increased. Wolframite ore recovery from 66% in early country state founding period, increased to 80% or more.
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Through the national "95" science and technology research, black and white mixed tungsten ore processing technology got breakthroughs, making the refractory metals tungsten ore beneficiation recovery rate of 10 percent or more, and can be highly efficient recover molybdenum, bismuth and other elements. However, on the whole, in addition to a small part of the mine, the majority of mines due to lack of funds, less investment in research, slow technological transformation and innovation, leading to the big level gap between China and world in development and utilization of tungsten mineral resources.
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In the China Tungsten Industry Association statistics, 24 major tungsten mines in 2009, recovery of wolframite mines dressing up to 87.19 percent, the lowest was 82.80%; scheelite mining beneficiation recovery of up to 77.23 percent, the lowest was 59.90%; black and white mixed tungsten ore dressing up to 59.92% recovery rate, a minimum of 58.20%. Research found that some recovery of scheelite ore mine is only 40%. In recent years, due to declining ore grade on selecting original ore, ore recovery rates declined slightly, while the overall loss rate of mining keeps at a higher level. The main factors are in the following areas:
Scheelite is in low-grade geology, grade tungsten ore selected is declining year by year. Tungsten ore resources in China have the main features: less high-grade ore, more lean ore, more refractory ore, and the white tungsten, tungsten symbiotic black and white, were associated mainly. In 2009, China identified reserves of 5.71 million tons of tungsten resources (WO3), wolframite accounted for 23.33%, scheelite accounted for 66.90%, mixed tungsten accounted for 9.79%. 80% of the grade scheelite deposit geology is less than 0.4%, lower than the foreign geology, and components are complex. In the existing scheelite, except for a few, the recovery of majority of scheelite ore is less than 60 percent in the current technology, which is 15~25% lower than wolframite ore. With the resources of tungsten ore mined each year, selected grades of tungsten mine was gradually decreasing, tungsten ore grade decreased, resulting in increased cost of mining, more difficult mineral processing and the mineral recovery rate is hard to be improved.
The techniques of selecting wolframite, scheelite and mixed black and white tungsten ore are different, and there is also big gad on recovery rate. The sorting technology conditions of wolframite, scheelite and mixed black and white tungsten ore three kinds of tungsten ore are very different. Black Tungsten Ore selection is mainly by gravity-based; scheelite ore is more by flotation; the selection of black and white mixed tungsten mine covers comprehensive beneficiation technology. The black tungsten in China are mostly large vein quartz vein type tungsten deposits or thin, high-temperature hydrothermal deposits is gasification, ore minerals is relatively simple, wolframite was thick or thin plate-like crystals in quartz veins pulse of enrichment, coarser cloth embedded, easy separation, processing and high recovery rate; and scheelite mine if the sandstone-type, compound (veinlet-disseminated - greisen skarn complex), minerals useful gangue minerals and mineral composition are more complex, useful minerals crystallized fine grain size, often disseminated disseminated in the ore, mostly refractory ore, mineral recovery rate is low.
The amount of wolframite extraction has been decreased. The comprehensive recovery of white tungsten, and mixed tungsten ore and low-grade tungsten is in a trend of increase. Wolframite extraction decreased, and the price of tungsten concentrate is rising again, which promote comprehensive recycle utilization of white tungsten, black and white tungsten, low-grade tungsten.In recent years, China has built a number of large white and black tungsten tungsten ore dressing plant mix, and the recovery rate is far lower than the mineral wolframite ore recovery; a number of enterprises invest in development and utilization of tailings containing tungsten, tungsten slag, recycled Tungsten waste and scrap; some of the low-grade tungsten deposits have begun been constructed and mined. These new conditions led to a certain extent, China's average recovery rate of tungsten ore dressing down.
The depth of tungsten ore mining gradually downward, mining dilution rate and loss rates are raising up. China's main form of tungsten mining is underground mining, open pit mining only existed in a few mines located in Fujian and Jiangxi, and the main mode is shafts inclined or joint development. The main mining methods are shallow hole, stage of caving, a comprehensive law and Sublevel law. Most of the tungsten ore is thin, and mining dilution rate is generally high, so exploitation of waste (waste rock and tailings) are more,  and mining recovery rate is not high. As the extension of mining depth is getting lower, mining costs, mining difficulty have been increasing.

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