China is one of the countries with rich nonmetallic mineral resources and complete varieties in the world, and has the resource conditions to form advantageous industries. By the end of 1994, there were 25 kinds of nonmetallic minerals as chemical raw materials with proven reserves in China, and nonmetallic minerals 100 (including subspecies). Among them, the mineral resources are rich, including graphite, fluorite, magnesite, barite, gypsum, talc, kaolin, bentonite, diatomite, perlite, asbestos, wollastonite and so on. Marble, granite and other stone resources are also very rich. Table 1-3- 1 lists the ranking of major nonmetallic mineral resources in China in the world. Some of these minerals are of good quality, such as talc ore produced in Haicheng, Liaoning Province and Longsheng, Guangxi Province, with a talc content of > 90%; The super-grade and first-class magnesite in Haicheng, Liaoning Province reaches 57%; Among the barite mines in Tianzhu, Guizhou, more than 60% are rich minerals that have reached foreign trade export; Large-scale crystalline graphite produced in Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Heilongjiang and other places is of good quality, while aphanitic graphite produced in Hunan, Jilin and other places has a long-standing reputation in the international market for its high grade and excellent performance. High-quality bauxite from Shanxi, Henan, Guizhou and other real estates, perlite from the ladder in Xinyang, Henan, and wollastonite from the pear tree in Jilin all occupy a certain share in the international market. Some nonmetallic minerals are unique, such as coal-series kaolinite.

Table 1-3- 1 World Ranking of Major Nonmetallic Mineral Resources in China

The nonmetallic mineral resources with proven reserves in China can basically meet the needs of national economic development in 20 10. China's nonmetallic mineral resources are characterized by large total resources and complete varieties, but the per capita resources are not rich, and the bulk minerals are poor and rich (for example, among the four main minerals producing flake graphite, only three have an average fixed carbon content above 10%, four have 5% ~ 9%, and seven have less than 5%; Bentonite ore is mainly calcium-based soil, sodium-based soil accounts for about 20% of the total, and montmorillonite content is about 50% on average. The average content of P2O5 in phosphate rock is 16.8%, and the rich ore over 30% only accounts for a little more than 6% of the total). There are few large deposits, mainly small ones. Among the 165 nonmetallic deposits in China, there are 27 large deposits, 23 medium deposits and 5 small deposits1/kloc-0. The types and distribution of resources are uneven, and some resources are difficult to use. For example, more than half of glass raw materials are quartzite mines with difficult processing conditions, and there is a lack of high-quality glass raw material bases. There is a serious shortage of potassium and diamonds, and potash mainly depends on imports. It is estimated that the demand for potash fertilizer will reach 6 million tons by 2005, and the deficit of potash fertilizer will reach 5.25 million tons by T, 20 10.

Second, the development and utilization of nonmetallic minerals in China.

Non-metallic mineral industry is a modern raw material industry that provides raw materials and supporting products for the national economic sector, and its development must adapt to the development of the national economy. Since the founding of New China, especially since the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of China's national economy, the nonmetallic mining industry has also achieved rapid development, effectively providing material guarantee for various departments of economic construction. The quantity and variety of products not only meet the needs of national economic construction, but also increase the foreign exchange earned by export steadily. Earning foreign exchange through export is a dominant industry in China, and it has become one of the important countries in the world in the production and trade of nonmetallic minerals. From the founding of the People's Republic to 1994, the investment in non-metallic mineral industry was171300 million yuan, and over 4 billion yuan was paid in taxes and profits in the same period. The investment accumulation of heavy industry is second only to petrochemical and machinery, and it has become a sunrise industry with less investment and more accumulation. During the period from1986 to1997, the export volume of non-metallic minerals in China (see table 1-3-2) increased at an average annual rate of 14%, which was much higher than the growth rate of foreign exchange earned by commodity exports in China during the same period.

Table 1-3-2 Foreign Exchange Income of Non-metallic Minerals during China 1986 ~ 1997 (unit: US$ 100 million)

See table 1-3-3 for the demand forecast of nonmetallic minerals in China from 2000 to 20 15.

Table1-3-3 Forecast of Non-metallic Mineral Demand in China from 2000 to 20 15 (unit: 10,000 tons)

At present, the export volume of graphite, talc, fluorite, barite and light and heavy burned magnesium in China accounts for about 1/4 ~ 1/2 of the total trade volume of similar products in the world. Stone, mica, vermiculite, asbestos, perlite, diatomite, wollastonite, pyrophyllite, kaolin, refractory high alumina, etc. also occupy a considerable share in international trade and play a decisive role in the international market.

Table 1-3-4 lists the export situation of major nonmetallic minerals in China in 1997.

Table 1-3-4 1997 China's main non-metallic mineral exports.

Compared with metal mines, the use of non-metal mines causes less waste and more employees in mines, both at home and abroad. For example, American nonferrous minerals 180 and nonmetallic minerals 1 1400. 1996, there were 72,740 non-metallic mineral industrial enterprises of building materials above towns and villages nationwide (table 1-3-5), more than metal mines.

Table 1-3-5 Number of industrial enterprises and production units at township level and above and total industrial output value

Although China's non-metallic mineral industry has made great progress, it should be noted that China's non-metallic mineral products are still dominated by raw ore and roughed products, with low comprehensive utilization level, high ore consumption level, low product grade and few varieties, which is far from the world advanced level.

Three. Gaps and problems

China is one of the major producers of nonmetallic minerals in the world and occupies an important position in the world industrial mineral trade. Remarkable achievements have been made in the utilization and protection of non-metallic minerals, and the processing and utilization technology has been constantly innovated in reference. However, due to the late start of rational utilization of resources, poor foundation and backward equipment, the utilization level of non-metallic minerals in China is still far from the international advanced level.

(1) Like ferrous metals and other industries, non-metallic minerals suffered industry losses (654.38+86 million yuan) in 1997. Although there are many reasons, one that can't be ignored is that China's non-metallic mining enterprises have poor ability to adapt to the market and independently develop products, and the depth of product processing and the breadth of product utilization are not enough. This shows that the development road of winning by quantity has come to an end The fact that the mineral products in the upper, middle and lower reaches are seriously unbalanced, and the total surplus and structural shortage coexist tells us that the failure to form a series of product structures is the main problem in China's non-metallic mineral processing, which leads to the failure to effectively meet the market demand and fully reflect the resource value. The lack of product varieties and single specifications greatly restricts the application breadth of non-metallic mineral products, affects the exertion of resource benefits, and affects the adaptability and profitability of enterprises to the market. For example, China's talc powder has less than 10 varieties and 2-3 specifications, while small enterprises only have 1-2 varieties and one specification, while French Rushennak and American Cypriot talc company produce more than 30 varieties, nearly 100 grades and more than a dozen specifications. There are only two grades of perlite in China: +60 mesh and -60 mesh. Coarse-grained materials are used to produce building materials and insulating expanded perlite materials. Except for a small amount of fine particles used to produce filter AIDS after expansion, a large number of them are discarded, and the resource utilization rate is only 60%. The perlite products of Schundlet and Incon companies in the United States have dozens of specifications for agriculture, building materials, gardening, filter AIDS, high-temperature insulation, low-temperature insulation, fillers, coatings, abrasives and other 18 projects. , no tailings. Perlite can also be processed into composite materials with peat and vermiculite. Even dolomite is processed into different specifications of 14 in Germany. Another example is TELSA clay minerals (sepiolite and attapulgite) products used in 17 industrial category, including nearly 40 product specifications. The bentonite products produced by Steeley Bentonite and Absorptions Limited have 15 brands and are used in many industrial sectors from agriculture to modern industry. It can be seen that the series utilization of resources is an inevitable choice to play the value of resources.

(2) The backward deep processing technology of products greatly restricts the deep utilization of nonmetallic mineral products. For a long time, China's non-metallic mineral products have been "AG low output" upside down. Although the export volume of many nonmetallic minerals in China ranks among the top in the world, they mainly produce raw materials or crude products. For example, although the export of granite is growing rapidly, there is no big breakthrough in product variety and product quality.

China's graphite, magnesite, talc, barite and other minerals have international advantages, and they are the main mineral products that China exports to earn foreign exchange. The raw ore and primary processed products are the main products, while the deep processed products are imported, resulting in the upside-down situation of "low AG production". The price difference between import and export is 10 times or even higher, and its due competitiveness is not commensurate with China's resource advantages and current economic development. For example, China exports nearly 6.5438 million tons of talc every year, with an average comprehensive unit price of 53. 12 USD /t, while the average comprehensive unit price of talc processed products imported in the same period is 496.7 USD/t; Export 20,000 tons to Timely every year, with an average comprehensive unit price of 73.39 USD/ton, while the average comprehensive unit price of processed products imported from Timely in the same period is 528 USD/ton; The annual export of graphite is 6.5438+0.5 million tons, and the average comprehensive unit price is 327 USD/ton; The comprehensive unit price of imported graphite products is 4600 USD/ton; The comprehensive export price of fluorite is 70.5 1 USD/ton, and the comprehensive import price is 662.1USD/ton. For another example, in the late 1980s, China introduced five advanced high-energy zinc-manganese battery production lines from Japan, one of which was high-performance graphite powder, which needed to be imported from Japan, while Japan exported carbon graphite from China and processed it into high-purity ultrafine graphite powder, which was sold back and increased by 10 times. For another example, there are six Sino-foreign joint-venture salad oil plants in China, which need10.8 million tons of activated clay every year, all of which are imported from Malaysia at $350/ton, and the price is three times higher than that of domestic activated clay. The imported products are imported from Malaysia, with fast filtration speed, low oil carrying rate, stable performance and lower comprehensive cost than domestic activated clay. The original soil used in Malaysia is Wulian bentonite shipped from Rizhao City, Shandong Province, China.

(3) China's non-metallic mineral processing enterprises have poor independent innovation ability. When the mines in developed countries move from intensive management to information-based mines, the mining and dressing industry of non-metallic mines in China is still in the stage of extensive management. Take wollastonite as an example. There is only one medium-sized wollastonite mine in China, and the number of state-owned enterprises only accounts for 8%. Half of the mines in China do not have processing capacity, and most of the mines with processing capacity can only produce ordinary wollastonite powder. There are only ten gypsum mines with an annual output of more than 300,000 t in China, and the rest are many small and medium-sized enterprises. The total output130,000 t is mainly raw materials. Another example is the ultra-fine crushing equipment in non-metallic ore processing equipment. Most domestic models are small and medium-sized, and most of them are small. Compared with advanced countries, there are obvious gaps in serialization and standardization, and the maximum processing capacity, fineness and energy consumption of a single machine are also obviously different from those of similar foreign equipment (see table 1-3-6). The reason is that there are few large and medium-sized backbone enterprises, many small mines, few state-owned mines and many individual mines, and more than 80% of them are township collective mines. Due to the neglect of technology development and little or no investment in science and technology, the independent innovation ability of the whole industry is very poor. The lack of deep processing equipment has affected the promotion of domestic high-quality non-metallic mineral products and their promotion in related industries. For example, the output of calcite powder, namely heavy calcium powder, used as PVC plastic filler in China has reached 265,438+10,000 tons, while the output of superfine powder only accounts for 1/8. Using 100 mesh fine powder instead of ordinary 400 mesh fine powder can reduce the cost of PVC plastic products by at least 1000% and increase the benefit of heavy calcium carbonate production plant by 30%. If calcite "rhombohedral" is used for cleavage to make flake powder < 2 microns, instead of expensive washed kaolin (20,000 yuan/ton) for surface coating of coated paper and coated white board paper, the economic benefits will be very obvious. However, due to the lack of large-capacity, low-cost ultrafine grinding and classification, as well as surface treatment equipment, the domestic demand for ultrafine powder raw materials continues to be imported.

Table 1-3-6 Comparison of several typical ultra-fine equipment suitable for deep processing of nonmetallic minerals at home and abroad

(4) Weak basic work, backward equipment technology and serious waste of resources. Basic work includes geological exploration work and scientific and technological work. The level of geological prospecting is not enough, which is reflected in the fact that 50% of state-owned nonmetallic mines and 90% of township and individual mines have unknown resources. Due to unclear resources, many mines are struggling and in a dilemma. The foundation of scientific and technological work is weak, which is manifested in the primitive and backward mining and beneficiation methods. For example, 70% ~ 80% of stone processing comes from drilling and blasting in township enterprises and manual splitting, and the waste output is less than 30%. The same is true of other non-metallic minerals, which seldom use scientific mining methods, which not only makes it difficult to further expand the scale of operation, but also causes amazing waste. Sorting processing stays in manual sorting or simple mechanical sorting, lacking the guidance of rational utilization and protection. The backward control technology in the processing process not only affects the product quality, but also causes low resource utilization and poor production efficiency to some extent. The overall technical equipment of nonmetallic mineral industry is backward, which leads to the low output of mineral products in China, the dominant minerals are used in China, the intermediate minerals are used in China, the product grade is poor, the product specifications are few, and nonmetallic mineral fillers, coatings, insulation materials, advanced refractories, superfine grinding, surface modification, modification and composite materials lag behind the requirements of the times.

(5) Applied basic research can't keep up with the development of nonmetallic minerals. The basic research on the application of nonmetallic minerals, focusing on the mineral composition, physical and chemical characteristics, surface interface properties, properties under the action of field, technological characteristics, product positioning and other aspects, has not been paid enough attention, which directly affects the development of new products in China and can only take the road of analogy for reference. In this way, on the one hand, we are in a passive position of tracking research, and our technology, equipment and products lag behind the foreign generation, on the other hand, it also affects and restricts our own innovation ability.

Insufficient investment in scientific research, the existing conditions can not be fully utilized. The research strength and equipment of non-metallic minerals in China are relatively weak and backward, and the number of published papers and patents lags far behind that of developed countries, such as 1995, 13 domestic mica patents and 60 Japanese patents; There are hundreds of patents on perlite in the world, and only a few dozen in China. During the period of 1985 ~ 1995, the number of China patents applied by China's scientific and technological personnel using non-metallic minerals was 1098, while the number of patents applied in the world during the period of 1986 ~ 12597 (the former was from China patent database). The number of patents in China is about 1% of that in the world. Based on the fact that gypsum, limestone, graphite, fluorite, talc, wollastonite, asbestos, bentonite, perlite and zeolite are among the top three in the world, the number of patents in the world is 50,408, and that in China is 56 1 piece, accounting for1./kloc-0 of the number of applications in the world. This is not commensurate with the fact that China is a country with large nonmetallic mineral resources and numerous scientific research institutes. It shows that the depth and breadth of nonmetallic mineral research in China are far from the advanced level in the world.