Asia's Largest Fluorite Mine Enters Operation in China, Boosting Strategic Resource Security

A major new mining and processing facility for fluorite, a critical industrial mineral, has commenced operations in China. Recently, the 1.2 million-tonne-per-annum Kalqar Fluorspar Mine, developed by Xinjiang Nonferrous Metals Group Huou Mining and designed and constructed by China Minmetals, is now online.

The mine's reserves represent approximately 15% of China's total proven fluorite reserves, positioning it as Asia's largest single fluorite deposit. By production scale, it is also confirmed as China's largest primary fluorite mining and processing base.

The project's commissioning follows the successful resolution of significant technical challenges in fluorite beneficiation. Engineers overcame difficulties in suppressing calcite, processing ore at low temperatures, and floating coarse particles. The resulting operation achieves a designed fluorite recovery rate exceeding 80%, with the produced fluorspar concentrate reaching grades of 97%.

This success establishes a comprehensive technical system for the efficient processing of difficult-to-benefit calcite-type fluorspar deposits. The breakthrough provides crucial technological reserves for exploiting China's vast resources of this type and secures a stable raw material supply for the nation's fluorochemical industry.

In a notable advancement for mining technology, the Kalqar Fluorspar Mine is China's first non-coal underground mine to be fully designed from the outset for non-explosive mechanical continuous mining. This innovative process enables parallel, continuous operations underground, which is expected to substantially improve mining efficiency, labour productivity, and overall safety management through enhanced mechanisation and automation.

The project's infrastructure incorporates specific adaptations for its high-altitude, cold-climate location. The tailings dam utilises an upstream construction method modified for these conditions. Furthermore, a solar thermal collection and storage system has been integrated, providing hot water for both heating and slurry temperature control, thereby reducing electricity consumption and generating significant energy savings.

The construction phase, completed within a remarkably short period of 328 days, involved overcoming severe logistical and environmental obstacles. The project team worked through challenges including high-altitude hypoxia, extreme summer heat and winter cold, and the initial absence of access roads, communication signals, and a power grid. Leveraging expertise in managing construction in remote, frigid regions, the team resolved multiple critical process difficulties to achieve commissioning.

To address specific technical problems caused by large diurnal temperature variations, such as welding distortion and concrete pouring issues, the team innovated with the "reverse temperature differential welding method." This technique uses principles of thermal expansion and contraction, involving precise calculations of material expansion coefficients to account for deviations. Work was scheduled for the coldest hours of dawn to allow for expansion during the day, ensuring construction quality. Sliding formwork technology was also adopted for concrete pouring to guarantee consistency.

As Xinjiang's first and the country's largest modern fluorite base, the project is set to fill a market gap in the region. Its high-grade fluorite concentrate will help alleviate China's reliance on imported high-end fluorochemical raw materials. The mine will provide essential resource security for several critical sectors, including the production of new energy batteries and semiconductor etching agents.

Upon reaching full operational capacity, the Kalqar Fluorspar Mine processing plant will achieve an annual processing volume of 1.2 million tonnes of ore, producing 300,000 tonnes of fluorite concentrate each year.