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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 05, 2002

China Taps Huge Potassic Salt Reserves

A 2.2 million-ton-per-year potash fertilizer project is under construction in Ruoqiang County, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.


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To greatly reduce China's potash fertilizer imports
A 2.2 million-ton-per-year potash fertilizer project is under construction in Ruoqiang County, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The project is expected to greatly reduce China's potash fertilizer imports. China needs five million tons of potash fertilizer annually, but 90 percent of this is met by imports due to low domestic production.

Backgrounder: Lop Nur
Lop Nur, salt basin, SE Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, in the Tarim River basin. Since 1964, Lop Nur has been used by the Chinese Communist government for its nuclear test explosions. Once a large salt lake (as mapped by ancient Chinese geographers), it is now largely dried up, with marshes and small, shifting lakes receiving the channels of the Tarim River. The region was explored by N. M. Przhevalsky and Sven Hedin. In 1928, at the time of the last expedition, the lake covered c.1,200 sq mi (3,100 sq km). The name sometimes appears as Lo-pu po.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
Potassic salt reserves in Lop Nur unrivaled in Asia
In the first stage of the project, a 200,000-ton-per-year potassium sulphate plant is being built. It is expected to go into production in the first half of 2003. Li Hao, general manager of the Xinjiang Lop Nur Potassic Salt Scientific and Technological Development Co., which is responsible for the potash fertilizer project, said that potassic salt reserves in the Lop Nur area top 174 million tons, unrivaled in Asia.

Now dried up, Lop Nur used to be China's largest salt lake, covering 10,350 sq km. The area was a no-man's land before the salt exploitation work started.

To spur the mining efforts, the regional government has granted Lop Nur township status.


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