In nature sulfur is a ubiquitous nonmetallic element that has a strong affinity for other elements. It exists in many forms, e.g. as native sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, metallic sulfide and sulfate, and forms various types of sulfur deposit. The principal industrial minerals and compounds of sulfur include native sulfur, pyrite, marcasite, pyrrhotite, hydrogen sulfide and nonferrous metal sulfides.

Sulfur is a basic chemical material. Sulfur-bearing ore is mainly used in the manufacture of sulfuric acid and powdered sulfur. More than 80% of sulfur-bearing ore in China is used in sulfuric acid production, while fertilizer production is the largest consumer of sulfuric acid and its consumation  takes up 70% of the total sulfuric acid production. Sulfuric acid is also widely used in chemical industry, light industry, metallurgic industry, petroleum industry and pharmaceutical industry. Powdered sulfur is material for producing sulfuric acid and is also used in agriculture, chemical industry, food industry, building materials industry and light industry.

China is one of the earliest countries that used sulfur and its use of sulfur commenced a few thousand years ago.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, sulfur geological work has developed rapidly, which has led to successively discovery of many large and medium-sized pyrite deposits, such as the Xiangshan deposit in Anhui, the Dongshengmiao deposit and Tanyaokou deposit in Inner Mongolia and the Dajiangping deposit in Guangdong, and numerous medium-sized and small pyrite deposits, as well as pyrite deposits in which pyrite is associated with nonferrous metals. Moreover, great achievements have been made in the reconnaissance and evaluation of elemental sulfur and sour natural gas from which hydrogen sulfide is recovered.

In contrast to the sulfur source of other countries which is mainly from oil and natural gas and native sulfur deposits, the main sulfur source of China has long been from pyrite and no radical change will take place in the near future. This remarkable contrast arises because pyrite resources in China are very abundant and widespread and China's oil is mostly low-sulfur and sour natural gas is only found in the vicinity of Weiyuan, Sichuan.

To meet the demand of the agricultural fertilizer sector and other sectors, during the sixth and seventh Five-Year Plan periods, a number of large and medium-sized mines have been constructed or expanded at Yunfu of Guangdong, Tanyaokou of Inner Mongolia, Xiang-shan of Anhui, Zhoujia of Sichuan, Qibaoshan of Hunan and Yangquan of Shanxi, and thus the pyrite production capacity has been increased greatly. At present, five pyrite production bases, viz. Guangdong, Sichuan, Anhui, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, have been formed. In these bases the Yunfu pyrite deposit, Guangdong, with a production capacity of 3 million tons per year  is the largest in China.China is a major sulfur producer in the world with a production of approximately 6 million tons of sulfur in 1997.