At cost of 178 million yuan (21.4 million dollars), a celestite concentration plant was established recently in northwest China's Qinghai Province following one year of construction and is believed to be the largest base of its kind ever built up in the country.

Located in the Mongolian-Tibetan-Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi in the Qaidam Basin, the plant is expected to produce annually 300,000 tons of celestite, a strontium ore found in sedimentary rock, when it goes into operation within the year.

The plant is expected to produce per year 30,000 tons of strontium carbonate, an important chemical material used in electronics industries, an output expected to double during its further development.

The plant is thus the largest strontium carbonate production base in the country.

Qaidam Basin in the province accounts for 80 percent of proved celestite reserves in the country and 66 percent of the total worldwide, paving a good foundation for the development of the plant.

To date, the demand for strontium carbonate worldwide amounts to nearly 400,000 tons, 100,000 tons of which is short of supply.

Source: Xinhua