Qinghai provincial government and China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) recently signed an agreement to jointly exploit the mineral resources of the Qaidam Basin whose value could be as high as 17 trillion yuan (or US$2 trillion).
CITIC is to invest 4.2 billion yuan (US$507 million) to mine lithium, kalium and boron in the Xi Taijnar Saline Lake and magnesium from the Unity Lake. An official of the Qinghai government said the Qaidam Basin contains a great deal of lake salt, petroleum, natural gas and nonferrous metals with a total deposit reaching 331.5 billion tons. He said that the work has already begun.
The Xi Taijnar Saline Lake contains 3.08 million tons of lithium chloride, 1.63 million tons of boron oxide and 26.56 million tons of potassium chloride. CITIC plans to build a factory with an annual production capacity of 35,000 tons of lithium carbonate; 1 million tons of kalium sulphate and 35,000 tons of boric acid.
The Unity Lake stores 30.46 million tons of magnesium chloride; 27,000 tons of kalium chloride and 63,000 tons of boron. With an investment of 2 billion yuan (US$242 million), CITIC will establish a factory with an annual production of 50,000 tons of magnesium; 120,000 tons of PVC (poly-vinyl chloride) and 200,000 tons of methyl alcohol.
The resources of the Qaidam Basin will be of great strategic importance as PVC is one of the five synthetic resins most widely used; kalium sulphate a vital fertilizer – with China at present needing to import large amounts of both; lithium is indispensable in the high technology and IT sector; magnesium and magnesium alloys the most promising of the new materials to be mined there.
(China.org.cn by Feng Yikun, March 25, 2003)
