Perlite deposit occurs in Yangjiawan section of volcanic rock of Chen Peng Formation in Lower Cretaceous. The lithology of volcanic rocks in Yangjiawan section is mainly rhyolite, acidic volcanic glass, expansive clay, zeolite tuff and perlite. The perlite ore body is bell-shaped and layered, with a length of 50- 1400 m, a width of 40-90 m and a thickness of 2- 102 m. The main ore body is more than 30 meters thick. The ore is grayish white to black with glass luster. Its chemical composition is SiO _ 2 71.8%-73.58%, H _ 2O 3.72%-4.50%, its expansion multiple is 6- 15, and 60% of it exceeds 10, mostly A-grade ore. The ore is exposed to the surface or buried shallowly, with a stripping coefficient of 0.68-0.82, which is suitable for open-pit mining. Xinyang Shangtianti perlite ranks first in the country in terms of quality and quantity. The minerals associated with perlite are bentonite, zeolite and tuff for glass.
The earliest mineral survey of Mesozoic volcanic rocks in Xinyang area was in 1969. At that time, in order to meet the demand of Luoyang tractor factory and other units for bentonite, Han Yingshan suggested that Henan Geological Bureau conduct a general survey of bentonite in volcanic rocks in Xinyang area on the 11th team. Team Yu 1 1 started work in Datang 'ao and Liujiachong in the north-central part of Shangtianti mining area. Li Chuanyan and Yang Pixian delineated a rock named acidic volcanic glass when compiling the geological map of the mining area 1∶5000. 197 1 year, Pang Chuanan, the technical director of the team (renamed Geology 10), was greatly inspired when he visited geological museum in Beijing, and found that this sample was very similar to the acidic volcanic glass seen in Liu and other places. After returning to the team, Yang Ke was sent to take samples, and the samples were sent to the Doudian Brick and Tile Factory in Beijing for testing. The test results show that perlite not only exists in Shangtianti area of Xinyang, but also has good expansion performance. Pang Chuanan and others think that perlite in Shangtianti area is not only discovered for the first time in Henan Province, but also may be very valuable, so they actively declare it to the Geological Bureau and strive for the project. In June, 1972 sent a general survey team to the mining area to carry out the general survey of perlite. After August, 1972, Liu Xinghui and Li Chuanyan served as technical leaders of the field team responsible for the general survey. The laboratory is responsible for testing. They organized technical research, made some equipment by themselves, and studied the best particle size of samples by optimization method, which reduced the cost and accelerated the exploration speed. 1975 submitted the survey of perlite and bentonite mining areas in Shangtianti-detailed investigation report. The reserves of perlite and bentonite in Yangjiawan ore block are 42.62 million tons and15.6 million tons respectively. The mining degree of Liujiachong ore section is low, with an estimated reserve of 65 million tons of perlite and 5.3 million tons of bentonite.
Before and after the submission of the Detailed Survey Report of Perlite in Shangtianti, small-scale perlite mining activities began in the local area, which reached its peak in the early 1980s. As a mineral with great economic value, perlite mine in Xinyang area will be paid more and more attention by geology, building materials departments and Xinyang area. 1983, the provincial bureau of geology and mineral resources assigned the exploration task of Yangjiawan ore section to its third geological survey team, and Li Chuanyan was still in charge of the team's technology. In the process of exploration, the brigade and detachment pay attention to accept the guidance of their superiors, strengthen contact with the design and industrial departments, solicit opinions extensively, and formulate reasonable industrial indicators and ore grade grading standards in time, so that the exploration work can be carried out smoothly and quickly. 1984 submitted the detailed investigation report of Yangjiawan ore section. Industrial reserve has submitted 56.85 million tons of perlite with prospective reserves of 6.5438+0.806 million tons, totaling 74.965438+0.000 million tons. In addition, the proven reserves of calcium-based bentonite are 24.27 million tons, and the reserves of zeolite ore are 4.68 million tons. After the detailed investigation of Yangjiawan ore section was completed, the perlite reserves in Henan Province jumped to the first place in China. Bentonite ore and zeolite ore in this section have reached the scale of medium-sized deposits. Bentonite is a kind of bentonite with medium viscosity, and the total cation exchange capacity is 74.27. 65438-0985 MOFTEC invited Czech experts Engel Chale Zdenke and Peter Jansk to inspect Xinyang Shangtianti perlite mining area through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Mr. Engelchal Zdenke has been to more than 70 countries. After his inspection, he said, "I have never seen such a good perlite mine." It can be seen that the excellent quality of Xinyang Shangtianti perlite is also rare in the world. Starting from 1986, the third geological survey team made a detailed survey of Liujiachong ore section and submitted a detailed survey report starting from 1987. Industrial reserve18.38 million tons of perlite has been proved, with a prospective reserve of 28.07 million tons. Up to now, the proven perlite reserves of Shangtianti perlite mine are 1, 2 1.36 million tons, and bentonite is 33.54 million tons.
The third geological survey team won the second prize of geological prospecting of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources in 1988 for discovering and exploring the largest perlite deposit in Henan Province.
Pearlite mines in Xinyang area are mined by collective mines in Xinyang county and luoshan county county, towns and many private mines, with an annual output of about 200,000 tons. It has been sold to more than ten provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong and Hunan, and exported to Japan and Southeast Asia. The annual output of bentonite is about 50,000 tons. The development of perlite mine has become one of the pillar industries of Xinyang's economic development.