4.7.2.1 Present State of Production

Barite deposits are numerous in China, distributed widely in more than 20 provinces (region and municipalities). The greater majority of the mines are town and township enterprises and private-owned small mines, which usually have not been subjected to regular mine designing and have no definite scale and production. According to the statistics in 1997, there are 28 barite mines with a certain scale in China. They are mainly concentrated in Fujian, Guangxi, Hubei and Hunan, of which the mines with a production capacity larger than 30,000 t/a include mines at Yong'an of Fujian, Xiangzhou, Fusui and Yongfu of Guangxi, Suizhou of Hubei, Hengnan of Hunan etc. According to the Mineral Commodity Summaries 1997, the world's barite production in 1997 was 6.93 million tons, of which China's barite production was 3.50 million tons (4.462 million tons according to the statistics of the Ministry of Land and Resources of the P.R. China), ranking first in the world. The United States and India rank second and third respectively.

The productions of barite ore and main barium chemical such as barium carbonate, barium sulfate, barium chloride and lithopone in China in recent years are shown in Table 4.7.1.

Table 4.7.1 Productions of barite ore and barium chemicals of China (¡Á103 t)

4.7.2.2 Distribution of Production

Barite mining is developed in China and barite mines are widespread. The main barite producing mines are shown in Fig. 4.7.1 and Table 4.7.2.

Table 4.7.2 Main producing barite mines of China