China is one of the countries with the richest kaolin resources in the world, as of the end of 2019, the cumulative identified resource reserves were 3.496 billion tons, there were 525 mining areas, and there were 188 large and medium-sized mining areas with ore reserves of more than 1 million tons.
In addition, the sedimentary kaolin resources in the carboniferous-Jurassic and Tertiary coal strata in northern China are huge, and the prospect resources can reach tens of billions of tons. In terms of ore quality, China's kaolin is mostly ordinary ceramic soil, high-quality papermaking coating with kaolin is relatively short, to Suzhou, Maoming, Longyan, Datong kaolin as a good, it can be seen that China's kaolin reserves in the past twenty years can be fully guaranteed, but China's high-quality kaolin resources are not guaranteed.
1. Geodetic distribution of Gaoling in China
China's kaolin resources are widely distributed, throughout the country's six regions 21 provinces (cities, districts), but relatively concentrated, Jiangxi Province is the province with the largest proven kaolin reserves, followed by Jilin, Xinjiang, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan and other provinces, other provinces with kaolin reserves are Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.
2. China's kaolin resource endowment
The types of kaolin ore in China are mainly sandy kaolin, accounting for more than 60% of the total reserves; soft kaolin and hard kaolin account for about 6% and 5% of the total reserves, respectively; other unclassified types of kaolin account for about 27% of the total reserves.
From the perspective of ore quality, most of China's kaolin ore is ceramic soil, And the Al2O3 content (grade) is generally about 20%, up to 38% or more, and the minimum is not less than 10%. In the past, China's paper coatings and filler grade kaolin is relatively short, in 1989 the newly discovered Guangdong Maoming kaolin mine, not only huge reserves, but also excellent ore texture, up to the scraper coating grade quality standards, its discovery, so that China into the list of high-quality kaolin resources of the list. Among the national kaolin reserves, paper-grade kaolin accounts for 41.06%, ceramic grade kaolin accounts for 48.35%, and other kaolin such as white cement grade, rubber grade and electric porcelain kaolin account for only 10.59% in total.
China's kaolin deposits are mainly small and medium-sized, kaolin ore reserves (containing resources) greater than 20 million tons of super large mines, including Jiangsu Wuxian Yangshan Mine (21 million tons), Fujian Longyan DonggongXiaxi Mining Area (54.54 million tons), Jiangxi Guixi County Shangzhu Mine (28.6 million tons), Guangdong Huizhou Shawei (21 million tons), etc., nearly half of which are sedimentary kaolin mines produced in coal seams. There are 30 large ores with ore reserves (resource content) of 5 million to 20 million tons; 62 medium-sized ores with ore reserves (resource content) of 1 million tons to 5 million tons; and 111 small ores with ore reserves (resource content) of less than 1 million tons. There are 10 large deposits where exploration geological work has been carried out, 16 of which have been investigated in detail and 9 of which have been surveyed; 9 of which have been carried out in medium-sized deposits, 29 of which have been scrutinized and 24 of which have been surveyed; 9 of which have been carried out in small deposits, 53 of which have been scrutinized and 42 of which have been surveyed.
China's kaolin ore is dominated by a single mineral, symbiotic minerals include alumite, pyrite, pyrophyllite, bentonite, potassium feldspar, porcelain stone, quartzite, bauxite, coal, precious metals, rare dispersed elements, etc., in the beneficiation as far as possible to recover the associated minerals (such as mica, alum, etc.) and the tailings sand (quartz sand, feldsquartz sand, potassium feldspar sand) and the tailings in the tailings (such as niobium iron ore, zircon, apatite), in order to increase the economic benefits of the mine.
Source: Yin Jiangning, Ding Jianhua, Chen Binghan, et al. Evaluation of mineralization geological characteristics and resource potential of kaolin ore in China[J].Geology of China:1-20[2021-05-14]] Edited and sorted, please indicate the source!