4.10.3.1 Availability and Consumption

At present China's boron ore is mainly used in producing borax and boric acid, which are then processed intensively. In 1996 to 1998 the annual productions of boron ore, borax and boric acid in China were over 1,000,000 tons, over 200,000 tons and over 10,000 tons respectively. They mainly meet the domestic demands. The consumption structure of borax and boric acid of China in recent years are as follows: borax: 20% for the chemical industry, 39% for the light industry, 19% for medicines, 11% for building materials, and 11% for other uses; boric acid: 11% for the chemical industry, 26% for the light industry, 3.8% for medicines, 39% for building materials, and 20% for other uses. In the foreign trade, in 1997 imports of boron oxide, boric acid, borate and concentrates totaled 33,400 tons, and exports more than 2,000 tons; in 1998 imports were 57,000 tons and exports more than 4,000 tons. According to the imports and exports in recent years, imports of boron ore increased steadily. But from China's existing production capacity, the supply and demand of borax and boric acid are now basically in balance.

4.10.3.2 Trends

According to the existing production capacity and mining loss, the szaibelyite ore that can be mined commercially will be mined out by the beginning of the 21st century. Among the saline lake boron deposits in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, boron deposits in Qinghai has stopped production now owing to the limitation of the mining level, and most boron-bearing saline lakes in Tibet are less explored. Therefore, the continuous supply of boron minerals are not optimistic.

To meet the demands of the future and maintain sustainable development of China's boron mining industry, first, it necessary to increase the input of boron exploration, strengthen geological exploration work, continue to look for easily dressed szaibelyite deposits in the surrounding areas and the deep part of old mining areas in the eastern Liaoning-southern Jilin region, and increase explored reserves. We should strengthen the study of the conditions of boron ore formation in the saline lake boron minerogenetic belt on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the skarn type boron minerogenetic belt from Yeshan, Liuhe, Jiangsu to Huangbao, Zhongshan, Guangxi, and pay attention to looking for volcanic-sedimentary boron deposits. Besides, we also should appropriately raise the level of exploration of saline lake boron depo-sits of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Second, efforts should be made to accelerate the study of development and utilization of the Wengquangou ludwigite deposit in Liaoning and mine construction. The Wengquangou ludwigite deposit is a superlarge boron resource base in China with 280 million tons of explored reserves (including 21.85 million tons of B₂O₃ reserves), accounting for 46.5% of the country's total reserves. The development and construction of this mine will greatly improve the situation of the future shortage of boron resources in China.

Third, we should continues to conduct the study of the total use of saline lake boron ore. The saline lakes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has over 14 million tons of retained boron ore (B₂O₃) reserves, accounting for 30% of the national total. The comprehensive development and utilization of the saline lakes in this region are of great significance for meeting China's demands of boron minerals in the future, promoting economic prosperity of the border regions and minority nationality areas of China and reducing the gap between the eastern and western regions.

Fourth, in China the development and utilization of boron minerals also cause relatively serious pollution of the environment. The waste water, waste gas, waste residue, dusts and noise produced during underground mining and boron sludge generated when ludwigite is processed with the carbon-alkali method to produce borax have bad influence on the health of the staff members and the ecological environment. Therefore, to prevent and control the pollution of waste water, waste gas, waste residue, noise and radioactive material and come up to the standards of waste discharge set by the environmental protection is of important signifi-cance for the environmental protection and sustainable development of the boron industry.