China discovers highest-content cadmium ore bed in world

Chinese scientists announced that they had found a large stretch of independent cadmium ore bed, with a cadmium content between 2,000 grams and 8,000 grams per ton, the biggest in the world, in Duyun City, southwest China's Guizhou Province.

The discovery might go against a belief commonly held that cadmium, a soft silver-white metal, rarely appears in pure form in the environment, but is most often found in combination with other elements, such as cadmium oxide, cadmium chloride, or cadmium sulfide.

Zhang Tiegeng, a fellow researcher with the Geochemistry Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said the pure cadmium strata was found near Niujiaotang, a mountainous village in Duyun City, in cooperation with the No.104 geological team of Guizhou Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources in the past five years.

Before the discovery at Niujiaotang, the reported highest cadmium content with the ordinary cadmium ore beds in the world was below 1,000 grams per ton, according to Zhang.

Cadmium is widely used in high-tech fields such as aerospace and atomic energy. Abstraction of the toxic metal is usually done during the process of lead-zinc ores exploration.

The cadmium deposits with Niujiaotang Village might exceed 500 tons and could be explored independently, but economic prospects of the cadmium strata won't be very big, said Zhang.

Cadmium, especially cadmium oxide, is a probable cancer-causing agent in humans and high exposure to cadmium may cause nausea, salivation, vomiting, cramps, and diarrhea.

Source: Xinhua