4.18.2.1 Production

Mining of gypsum deposits in China includes open-pit mining and underground mining. Nevertheless, underground mining is the main method. Ore dressing generally includes simple handpicking of excavated gypsum ore and calcining and grounding of gypsum to obtain plaster. At present, the gypsum products in China consist mainly of 2 categories: gypsum mineral raw materials and gypsum manufactured products. The latter are divided into plaster board products and powder products. In addition, there are also gypsum composite manufactured products, for instance wood-chip plaster board, expanded pearlite plaster board, gypsum composite wall board, gypsum studs and so on. 

Recently there are more than 360 gypsum mine enterprises in China. The gypsum production capacity in China is over 30 million tons per year. The production is mainly concentrated in Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. The large and medium-sized mine enterprises with an annual production of more than 0.1 million tons in China amount to about 30, of which the mine enterprises with an annual production of more than 0.4 million tons are the Yingcheng Gypsum Mine, Hubei, Shaodong Gypsum Mine, Hunan, Nanjing Gypsum Mine and Peizhou Gypsum Mine, Jiangsu, Pingyi Gypsum Mine and Hualu Gypsum Mine, Shandong, Xishan Gypsum Mine, Shanxi and so on. 

There are more than one thousand gypsum manufactured products enterprises in China at present, of which 17 gypsum plasterboard manufacturing plants with 20 production lines and a design gross annual production capacity of about 0.2 billion m2, have been put into production. 

There are altogether more than 70 countries producing gypsum and gypsum manufactured products in the world. China, the USA, Thailand, Canada and Iran are the world's five largest gypsum producing countries, among which China ranks first. 

In the past 10 and more years, the production of gypsum and gypsum manufactured products in China has grown fastly. The gypsum production in China in 1985 was 6.31 million tons. Up to 1993, it had doubled reaching 13.7637 million tons. It was 27.22 million tons in 1996 and 26.6223 million tons in 1997. The production of gypsum manufactured products in China in 1988 was 10.83 million m2, up to 1993, and it has been multiplied by over one hundred percent to 28.21 million m². In 1996, the production of gypsum plasterboard in China has already reached 88.5979 million m². That in 1997 was 91.3149 million m², an increase of 3% over the previous year. The production of gypsum and gypsum plasterboard in the provinces (regions or municipalities) in China in 1994~1997 is shown in Table 4.18.1 and Table 4.18.2 respectively. In the gypsum production Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan and Jiangsu are the first 4 in China.

4.18.2.2 Distribution of Production 

The distribution of gypsum mines and products manufacturing enterprises in China is shown in Fig. 4.18.2. The major gypsum mines and gypsum products manufacturing enterprises are shown in Table 4.18.3. The gypsum production in China is mainly concentrated

Table 4.18.1 The gypsum production in provinces (regions) in China in 1994~1997(¡Á10³t)

Table 4.18.2 The production of gypsum plasterboard in provinces (regions) in China in 1994~1997  (¡Á10³ m²)

Table 4.18.3 The major gypsum mines and gypsum manufactured products enterprises in China

in Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan, Jiangsu, Hubei and Sichuan provinces. The production state of a part of gypsum mining enterprises and gypsum manufactured products enterprises is shown in Table. 4.18.4. 

Beijing Beixin Building Materials Group Co. of China is the largest gypsum products enterprise in China. The production capacity of two production lines of gypsum plasterboard totals 45 million m²/a. Its market occupying rate at home reaches 50%. Its products are exported to various parts of the world. Long brand gypsum plasterboard produced by Beixin Group Co. has won the honored title of "Beijing famous brand products".