4.11.2.1 Present State of Production

According to the Annual Report of the Statistics of Chemical Industry of China, China produced 25.0936 million tons of phosphate rock (standard ore, containing 30% of P2O5; the same hereinafter) in 1997, of which 52.85% (13.26 million tons) was produced by large and medium-sized State-owned mines and the rest was produced by non-State-owned small mines. These small mines have the advantages of less investments, quick results and low costs, but they also have many defects, e.g. unstable production and abusive or wasteful mining. By the end of 1997, the total production capacity of State-owned large and medium-sized phosphate mines that had been put into operation was up to 20.11 million tons per year.

As 74.40% of China's phosphate reserves are concentrated in five provinces, i.e. Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan, and high-grade phosphate rock with P₂O₅ >30% is concentrated in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Hubei, the phosphate production is relatively concentrated. In 1997 the phosphate rock production of the above-mentioned five provinces was 24.6397 million tons, accounting 98.20% of China's total phosphate rock production. Of the five provinces, Yunnan produced 7.6634 million tons of phosphate rock, Hubei 7.2891 million tons, Guizhou 5.2061 million tons, Sichuan 3.2481 million tons, and Hunan 1.2330 million tons. The production of phosphate rock in China in recent year is presented in Table 4.11.1.

Table 4.11.1 Production of phosphate rock in China in recent years

According to Mineral Commodity Summaries 1999, the world's production of phosphate rock in 1997 was 138 million tons, of which the United States, Morocco and Russia contributed 45.9 million tons, 23.4 million tons and 7.5 million tons, respectively. China'sproduction of phosphate rock is lower than that of the United States but higher than that of Morocco, ranking second in the world.

4.11.2.2 Distribution of Production

Phosphate enterprises in China are mainly distributed in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan. The main large and medium-sized phosphate enterprises are given in Table 4.11.2.

Table 4.11.2Main phosphate mines and enterprises in China