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Lithium oxide resources exceed one million tons, and it is expected to become the third largest lithium mine in my country |
Chinese scientists discover super-large lithium deposits in the Himalayas |
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Qiongjiagang Lithium Mine landform.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Pegmatite lithium ore body with scientific researchers as the "reference".
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
■Our reporter Ni Sijie
Lithium ore, known as "white oil", is an extremely rare white light metal resource. At present, 75% of my country's lithium resources are imported. With the development of the global new energy industry, the demand for lithium resources has increased dramatically.
A few days ago, the reporter learned from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) that the research team of the institute's scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau discovered a super-large lithium mine in the Qiongjiagang area of the Himalayas. The lithium mine is considered to be "expected to become the third largest lithium mine in my country after Bailong Mountain in southern Xinjiang and Meika in western Sichuan", and is "the first pegmatite lithium mine with industrial value in the Himalayas". The related results were published in the Journal of Petrology.
Regarding some issues of the super-large lithium mine in Qiongjiagang, "Science China Daily" exclusively interviewed researcher Qin Kezhang, the leader of the scientific research team and the director of the Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
How did scientists find super-large lithium deposits?
"We discovered this mine under the guidance of scientific theories that break through traditional cognition." Qin Kezhang said.
He said that the reason why the lithium deposit was not discovered before was mainly because the traditional view was that the formation of large areas of leuco granite in the Himalayas was due to the remelting and in-situ emplacement of sedimentary rocks, and was usually not used as a prospecting target.
"The large-scale Cenozoic leuco granite exposed in the Himalayan orogenic belt extending over 2,500 kilometers from east to west on the southern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has long been recognized by the first Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition, but has never been used as a rare metal prospecting target for more than 40 years. ." Qin Kezhang told the "Science China Journal".
After more than ten years of investigation and research, the research team of Academician Wu Fuyuan of the Institute of Geology and Earth Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the theory of highly differentiated leuco granite in 2015, and systematically proposed that the Himalayan leuco granite is a highly crystalline and differentiated granite, which is a deep intrusion in different places. This means that the leuco granites in this area have good rare metal mineralization potential. The theory breaks with conventional wisdom.
"Based on the new theory of Academician Wu Fuyuan, we began to search for rare metal deposits in the Himalayan leucogranite belt." Qin Kezhang said.
Subsequently, a number of units inspected the regional rock mass and found that more than 20 rock masses contain rare metal mineralization. The metal combination is mainly beryllium-niobium-tantalum (tin-tungsten) combination, of which Cuona Cave tin-tungsten-beryllium The deposit has been assessed to be of large scale. Although spodumene minerals have been found in one of the few 4 pegmatites, no industrially valuable lithium ore bodies have been found.
In 2020, on the basis of comparing and summarizing the symbiotic separation laws of lithium and beryllium deposits in the Altai and East Qinling rare metal metallogenic belts in my country, Qin Kezhang put forward a "Strongly Differentiation Granite According to the scientific prediction of “finding lithium at a more remote and higher place”, the prospective area was selected for key inspection, and a lithium mine was found in the summer of 2021.
Where are the ultra-large lithium mines?
"We discovered this lithium mine at a location 3,000 meters south and west of Qiongjiagang Peak in the Himalayas." Qin Kezhang said that out of the idea of giving good wishes, the researchers named the lithium mine "Qiongjiagang" according to the homophony of "Qianjiagang". Gang Lithium Mine".
Qin Kezhang introduced that they found more than 40 spodumene pegmatite belts with widths ranging from 10 meters to nearly 100 meters, which formed 4 dike groups and 4 ore belts.
"The surface outcrops of the Qiongjiagang Lithium Mine are in good condition, so we can clearly see the length, width and surface outcrop drop. The length of the four ore belts is more than 1,000 meters, and two of the ore belts are about 100 meters wide. Distributed in high-altitude areas ranging from 5390 meters to 5581 meters." Qin Kezhang said.
How "big" are the ultra-large lithium mines?
Generally speaking, "large" lithium mines contain more than 100,000 tons of lithium oxide resources, so how "big" is the Qiongjiagang lithium mine called "super-large"?
Qin Kezhang told the "China Science News" that the lithium oxide resources in the ore body can reach 1.0125 million tons. "This value is calculated based on the conservatively estimated ore body volume and lithium oxide resource content."
"The reason why we say 'conservative' is that when we estimate the volume of lithium ore, we only take 2/3 of the actual length for the length, 1/2 of the actual width for the width, and only 1/2 of the inferred depth for the thickness. , that is to say, only 1/6 of the total volume was taken." Qin Kezhang said.
In terms of lithium oxide content, Qin Kezhang introduced that the scientific research team selected a total of 59 representative samples, and selected areas with large volume, representative structure and relatively uniform mineral distribution for cutting and crushing. Below 1kg, they then mixed each powder sample well and finally took the sample size required for the test.
The analysis results showed that the average lithium oxide content was 1.30%. "The trace elements of the whole rock were tested in Aoshi Mineral Laboratory and Wuhan Shangpu Analysis Technology Co., Ltd. respectively, and retested in the laboratory of the Institute of Geology and Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The relative error of trace element measurement is less than 10%." Qin Kezhang added Say.
Is there a dispute?
A series of articles on the discovery of the Qiongjiagang lithium deposit will be published in the Chinese academic journal "Acta Petrology" in November 2021.
"Before the paper was published, some colleagues had doubts after hearing about the scale of the Qiongjiagang lithium mine, because such a large-scale pegmatite rare metal deposit is rare in China and abroad." Qin Kezhang said.
Qin Kezhang said that after the publication of the paper, the above doubts were largely eliminated, but the disputes since then began to focus on "why only 1/6 of the ore body volume was estimated".
"Many people asked me after reading the article, 'Why is the discount so big', 'Why not take 1/3, 1/2', I said, 'It's okay to take 1/3, but taking 1/2 is a bit too optimistic '." Qin Kezhang said.
He said that the reason why only 1/6 of the ore body volume was selected was because they believed that they should be more cautious in the early stage. "The situation in the ore body can't be seen now. It doesn't matter if it is a little less at the beginning. If it is found that the grade is better and the scale is larger, of course it will be better."
In addition, the reporter learned that "Journal of Petrology" is in charge of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sponsored by the Chinese Society of Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry and the Institute of Geology and Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is included in the "Science Citation Index" (SCI), with a composite impact factor of 3.316 in 2021.
For the paper published this time, the anonymous reviewer of the journal believes that "this is a huge breakthrough in the prospecting and exploration of rare metals in the Himalayas", "not only has important scientific value for understanding the mineralization of rare metals in leuco granite, but also for prospecting and exploration. It has outstanding practical significance.”
What is the industrial value?
The newly discovered lithium ore was evaluated by the scientific research team as "the first pegmatite lithium ore with industrial value in the Himalayas". So what exactly is its industrial value?
Qin Kezhang said that it is generally believed that when the content of lithium oxide resources exceeds 0.8%, lithium ore has industrial value for mining. Among the 59 samples they collected, 44 samples have lithium oxide resource content of industrial grade (above 0.8%). , the highest lithium oxide resource content of one sample reached 3.3%.
In addition, he told reporters that in addition to lithium oxide, there are about 39,800 tons of beryllium resources in the ore body, reaching a large scale; about 2,358 tons of tantalum oxide resources, also reaching a large scale; about 7,074 tons of niobium oxide resources, a small scale . Moreover, more than 90% of the minerals in the Qiongjiagang ore body are composed of quartz, potassium feldspar and albite, as well as some mica. These minerals are used to make glass, ceramics and insulating materials in the Keketuohai Mine in Xinjiang. The main rock-forming mines are expected to be effectively utilized, producing corresponding economic benefits and greatly reducing waste emissions.
Are there mining conditions?
In the paper, the scientific research team proposed that "the Himalayas are expected to become China's most important reserve base for rare metal mineral resources". So, does the Qiongjiagang lithium mine meet the mining conditions?
"The Qiongjiagang Lithium Mine has good mining conditions." Qin Kezhang responded, "The spodumene particles are relatively coarse, about 10 cm to 20 cm, and are suitable for ore dressing; the mining area is located with convenient transportation, and the village cement road has passed; The positive terrain is conducive to mining; the ore body is exposed, and there is no need for deep excavation; it is far away from the core nature reserve of Mount Everest.”
However, he said that at present, the lithium mine is still in the preliminary "pre-investigation" stage, and it is only basic to determine the distribution range of the ore body and the types and contents of useful elements. From discovery to mining, a mine generally goes through four stages: preliminary survey, census, detailed survey, and exploration. The preliminary survey is to determine the location and general situation of the mine, and the general survey is to eliminate the uncertainty in the preliminary survey stage by engineering means. , the detailed investigation is to prove the availability of the deposit, and the exploration is to determine the specific mining plan.
For the next step, Qin Kezhang said that the researchers will also enrich and improve the rare metal mineralization theoretical system and prospecting signs of high-fractionated granites, and conduct further scientific investigation and research on the area where the lithium ore is located and look for new lithium-bearing pegmatites In order to determine whether the Qiongjiagang Lithium Mine and its surrounding area can form a larger and complete lithium ore belt, so as to make greater contributions to the construction of my country's Himalayas into a new strategic replacement base for lithium beryllium rare metal resources.
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