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The world's first tungsten resource in China: the growth rate of supply may slow down in the future

  • Mosten
  • 8 June

The dominant production of tungsten resources in China is mainly concentrated in South China.China's tungsten resource reserves are 1.9 million tons, accounting for 57.58% of the world's largest: the world's tungsten resources are mainly concentrated in the Alps Himalayas, the Pacific Rim geological belt and the Mediterranean and Europe's coastal Atlantic region. China's tungsten resource endowment is significant due to its location between the first two belts. According to the statistics of USGS, in 2018, the global tungsten reserves were 3.3 million tons (metal volume), 1.9 million tons in China, accounting for 57.58% of the total.

In terms of global distribution, the tungsten resources in Russia are mainly concentrated in the middle part of the sikhote Alin mountains in the north Caucasus, East Siberia and Far East, and the relatively large mines are verkhne kayrakty; most of the tungsten mines in the United States are located in California and Colorado; most of the tungsten mines in Canada are located in Cassiar The batholith extends to the junction of Yukon area and northwest area; however, many large-scale tungsten mines in China are concentrated in Nanling area, accounting for 70% of the country's reserves. Therefore, among the top ten tungsten mines in the world, China's mines account for more than half of them. In 2017, Zhuxi deposit added 580000 tons of resources (converted into WO3), with 3.44 million tons (converted into WO3) of resources in the whole area, climbing to the top of the world's largest mine.

By the end of 2017, China's proven tungsten reserves were 10.3042 million tons (converted into WO3), of which Jiangxi Province was far ahead, accounting for 43%. Driven by the active exploration of tungsten enterprises, Zhuxi, Dahutang, Sadong scheelite deposit in Xinjiang, Dalong and Nuri scheelite deposits in Tibet have been discovered successively in recent years, and the distribution pattern of large-scale tungsten deposits in China has been further widened. According to the report of China's mineral resources, the current identification rate is only 30%, and the potential of tungsten resources is expected to be further released in the future.

High quality wolframite resources are on the verge of exhaustion.

Cost and low-grade ore increase the difficulty of mining and dressing: Although there are more than 20 kinds of tungsten bearing minerals found in the world, only wolframite and scheelite are of economic value for mining. Compared with Scheelite, wolframite has the characteristics of simple composition, coarse particle, easy selection and smelting. However, China's wolframite has experienced long-term mining, and high-quality resources have nearly dried up. Therefore, at present, wolframite, CO associated ore, poor ore and refractory ore are the main tungsten mines. In 2017, China's Scheelite Resources accounted for 70%. At the same time, by the end of 2018, there have been 10 tungsten mines that have been mined for 100 years or more in China, and the national average processed raw ore grade has decreased from 0.42% in 2004 to 0.28% in 2017. High cost and low-grade mines add difficulty to tungsten mining and beneficiation.

Industrial development promotes tungsten mining, and China contributes 82% of the world's output: the world's tungsten mining is developing rapidly, with a production of only 1700 tons in 1904. During World War II, the United States used a large amount of tungsten to make its output small peak, but fell rapidly with the end of the war; in the 1960s, the industrialization process of Japan, Russia and other countries led to a rapid increase in tungsten consumption; 80 After the middle of the s, the output of overseas tungsten ore shows a downward trend, while the rapid development of China's industry greatly promotes the growth of global tungsten consumption. Since then, China's tungsten ore output has always maintained 60% - 80% of the global tungsten ore output. According to the statistics of USGS, in 2018, the global tungsten output was 82000 tons (metal volume), and China's output reached 67000 tons, accounting for 81.71% of the world's total.

There are significant regional differences in tungsten resources in China. The mines are mainly concentrated in South China. As of 2017, there are 1538 tungsten ore producing areas in China, including Jiangxi (520), Guangdong (339), Hunan (169), Guangxi (115) and Fujian (107). The number of tungsten mines in five provinces accounts for 80% of the total.

A number of policies strictly control supply, and the total output of this year may tend to be stable

In recent 20 years, in order to protect tungsten resources, China has improved the relevant policies of tungsten industry from many aspects. Strategic orientation: emphasize the strategic position of tungsten for many times, guide the healthy and green development of tungsten industry; industry access: prevent the blind expansion of production capacity by improving the access conditions of production scale, safety production, environmental energy consumption and product quality; export quota and tax: modify the tariff and resource tax for many times to ensure the cost advantage of tungsten products; total amount control: control tungsten ore by setting quota Mining, crack down on the phenomenon of indiscriminate mining.

From the perspective of recent mining quota, the total production index issued by the state for tungsten concentrate in 2015-2017 is continuously controlled at 91300 tons (equivalent to WO3 65%), and the mining index of the first batch of tungsten ore in 2019 is 49800 tons, a decrease of 25.99% compared with the first batch in 2018. It is expected that the total mining volume will shrink this year.

According to the statistics of China Tungsten Industry Association, in 2018, the output of tungsten concentrate in China was 126000 tons (converted into WO3 65%), down 9.27% year on year, among which the total output of tungsten concentrate in Jiangxi, Hunan and Henan accounted for 81.04%. In 2019, under the background of exhaustion of high-quality domestic tungsten resources, decline in comprehensive utilization of associated resources, safety and environmental protection supervision, and strict policy control, the national tungsten concentrate output will continue to stabilize.

Strengthen the market confidence, increase the capacity of secondary recovery

The bidding of national and local collection and storage has injected a strong impetus into the market: in 2015, the contradiction between supply and demand in tungsten market worsened layer by layer. After several rounds of bidding due to low price, the storage of tungsten concentrate in the State Reserve Bureau has been reduced to a lower level. Therefore, in 2016, the state successively carried out five rounds of collection and storage bidding, four of which were successful, and the scheelite mine was included in the collection and storage scope for the first time. This collection and storage has played an important role in maintaining the stability of the market price of tungsten concentrate, making the market as a whole rise in a "wave" trend, which is significantly better than that in 2015.

It is very difficult to mine tungsten ore, which is heavily polluted. "Recovered tungsten" may become an important means of supply in the future: Although China is rich in tungsten resources, after decades of extensive mining and utilization, the advantage of resource endowment has been greatly weakened. It is understood that tungsten mining takes about 5 years from design to output, and it is difficult to mine. In the process, not only part of the resources will be wasted, but also the environment will be greatly polluted. With the rapid development of modern industry, recovery of tungsten may become an important means of tungsten supply in the future.

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tungsten