4.20.2.1 Production

There are altogether more than 1,300 mine enterprises producing glass siliceous raw materials, and most of them are small ones. There are only a few with an annual productive capacity of more than 100,000 tons of ores. Presently, the major enterprises include the Shaanxi Hanzhong Quartz Group Corporation, the Inner Mongolian Jirem Men Silica Corporation, the Fujian Dongshan Silica Sand Mine, the  Liaoning Shenyang Xingguang Group Corporation,  the Benxi Xiaopingdingshan Quartz Mine, Hebei Qinhuangdao Leizhuang Mine, the Shanghai Yaohua Dankou Qingmingshan Quartzite Mine and the Henan Luoyang Glass Making Group Fangshan Mine. In 1997, the output of siliceous raw materials for production of glass was 8.5~9.0 million tons, 54% of which were used for producing flat glass and 46% for domestic glass. The total output of siliceous materials was 17.0 million tons, of which 9 million tons were used for producing building materials, and about 8 million tons for producing light industrial products.

4.20.2.2 Distribution of Production 

The distribution of mine enterprises of siliceous raw materials in China is shown in the Fig. 4.20.2 and Table 4.20.1. From the map, one can find that China is rich in the resources of siliceous raw materials, but the distribution of resources is not balanced and they have the following characteristics:

    1) Resources are relatively concentrated in a few areas. Natural silica sand deposits are concentrated in the southeastern coastal areas and sandstone mines are mostly distributed in Liaoning, Shandong, and Shaanxi provinces. But in Anhui, Fujian, Hebei, Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces where the flat glass industry is well developed, the resources are meager, even unable to meet the need of industrial production in some provinces.

   2) The natural silica sand deposits of industrial value are comparatively concentrated. From Inner Mongolia to Hainan Province, deposits are mostly fluvio-lacustrine sedimentary sand deposits and marine sedimentary sand deposits. And the quality of silica sand tends to gradually improve from north to south. But scarce quality natural silica sand deposits have been discovered, which are relatively concentrated in Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian and Guangxi provinces(regions), and the quality of silica sand in Dongshan of Fujian and Wenchang of Hainan is better, a kind of ideal material for the production of float glass.

As a whole, the quality of marine sand is better than other types of glass materials and the quality of fluvio-lacustrine sedimentary sand is comparatively poor. Deposits of quartzite and quartz sandstone worthy of industrial value are mostly distributed in northern China.

Glass siliceous raw material mines in China are mostly constructed and operated by glass factories. A mine usually is operated by a large glass factory or sometimes by a number of factories. The factory usually is located near the mine, less than 200 km away. Medium-sized and small factories mostly do not own mines, so they have various sources of raw material supply, mostly purchasing materials from nearby small mines; as a result, their quality of product is not stable. 

The productive capacity of a part of the enterprises is given below: 

Jiren Men Quartz Sand Corp., Inner Mongolia, owns 11 mines, 650,000 t/a; Dongshan Silicon Sand Mine, Fujian, 360,000 t/a; Qinhuangdao Leizhuang Mine, Hebei, 200,000 t/a; Shaanxi Hanzhong Quartz Group Corp., 200,000 t/a; and Benxi Xiaopingdingshan Quartz Mine, Liaoning, 200,000 t/a; and Baimajian Sand Mine, Jiangsu Glass Factory, 60,000 t/a.

Table 4.20.1 Key mines and enterprises of siliceous raw materials