Compared the boron industry situation of China and the world

Turkey is rich in boron resources, boride production ranks second in the world, reaching 1.18 million tons, mostly for exporting; Russia has 227,000 tons, Argentina has 7.8 tons. Including China, these countries have reserves different amount of boron resources. According to metal powder exporter, Western Europe and Japan and some other developed countries were lack of boron resources, mostly relying on imported ore or borax, boric acid to deep process into other borides.

After nearly 50 years of development, China has basically established a boron mining, boron processing, boron and boron fine chemical new materials, production and other complete industrial system. Currently, the annual boron ore production is 1.4 million tons (standard ore), borax production capacity is 500,000 tons (in 2003, the production is 385,000 tons), boric acid production capacity is 200,000 tons/year, the output is around 60,000 tons/year. After 2003, Qinghai, Shandong’s boron industry was getting rapid development.

Chinese boron industry is based on produce boron borax and boric acid. Chinese borax is mainly used in glass and enamel industries. In recent years, the demand of Chinese borax is increasing, in 2001 it was 327,500 tons, in 2002 it was 352,400 tons, in 2003 it was 385,000 tons, in 2004, more than 400,000 tons. In 2005, Chinese total demand of borax was more than 420,000 tons. At present, Chinese annual output of boron stone is about 1.4 million tons (standard ore), borax’s annual production capacity is 500,000 tons, the annual output capacity of boric acid is 200,000 tons. Boric acid is mainly used for glass and light. Nearly two years, boride production enterprises through adjusting the product structure, improve the high value-added boron fine chemical products production, boric acid’s demand was increased, has been increased from 50,000-60,000 tons to 80,000 tons, an average annual increase speed is up to 6.5%. By 2010, Chinese boric acid consumption has reached 15 million tons.

Chinese boron ore are mainly the ascharite, lower grade (boron oxide, 12% -14 %), at present, the borax production is used CO2-soda method. Boric acid are general use sulfuric acid step, using higher grade boron and magnesium ore in Tibet, Qinghai, Liaoning as raw material. Nearly two years, some companies in Shandong region using the Tibet, Qinghai’s ascharite to produce boric acid (one-step) were put into industrial production, and some of them are reached an annual output of 5,000 tons.

China is now able to produce positive borate, metaborate, perborate, fluoroborate salts, boron halides, boron hydrides, boron powder, boron whiskers and other boride, have eleven series, 40 kinds, now the largest varieties have calcium borate, sodium perborate, zinc borate, boron carbide and other types. The world's proven reserves boron ore has about 335 million tons, mostly distributed in the Western Hemisphere, the United States is the most concentrated. Chinese proven boron reserves have 50 million tons. Among them, half of them are szaibelyite magnesium iron and boron mixed ore, salt lake brine and solid boron is about 2,000 tons, and the facilitate exploration ascharite mineral is less than 300 tons. Therefore, less, low grade, high impurity content is the weak point of Chinese boron resources. According to the Chinese boron resources, from the 1950s, Chinese enterprises are using two-step method to produce boric acid, in recent years begun to take one-step production.

Source:http://www.mhcmp.com