Development and utilization of graphite resources in China

China is rich in graphite resources and reserves, and it is a big producer of graphite. But for many years, while exporting primary products at low prices, importing high value-added products at high prices has become a prominent problem in the graphite industry, which also makes the graphite industry has been criticized. View the specifications of Graphite electrode produced by HP graphite. As China vigorously develops strategic emerging industries such as new materials, new high value-added graphite materials such as graphene have ushered in new development opportunities. China has also adopted a series of policy measures to accelerate the layout of graphite industry——

"Over the past years, China has been the country with the largest reserves of graphite resources, but with the in-depth development of mineral exploration in other countries, more and more graphite deposits have been found. In 2013, Brazil has surpassed China to become the world's largest graphite resource country, and China is losing its position as the largest graphite resource country." Zhang Lingyan, a professor at the School of Resources and Environmental Engineering at Wuhan University of Technology who has been working on graphite applications, recently expressed her concern.

Zhang Lingyan's concerns are not groundless. According to the DATA released by the US Geological Survey, in 2013, the world's proven natural graphite reserves of about 130 million tons, the top three countries are Brazil, China and India, of which China's graphite reserves of about 55 million tons, accounting for 42% of the global reserves, ranked after Brazil. China is the world's largest consumer of graphite, accounting for half of the world's total consumption of graphite. In Zhang Lingyan's opinion, this will lead to the reduction of the proportion of Graphite resources in China in the global graphite resources, so it is urgent to protect graphite resources.

Development and utilization of graphite resources in China

Natural graphite is divided into crystalline graphite and cryptocrystalline graphite according to different crystalline morphology. The crystal diameter of crystalline graphite is greater than 1 micron. According to its crystalline morphology, it can be divided into dense massive graphite and flake graphite. The crystal diameter of cryptocrystalline graphite is less than 1 micron, which is divided into dispersed earthen graphite and dense lump earthen graphite. The former has low ore grade, while the latter has high grade, but poor separability. Generally, it is the finished product that is crushed after selection, and the use value is not as good as flake graphite. Cryptocrystalline graphite is relatively cheap and is mainly used to produce low-end graphite products. Compared to the aphanitic graphite, dense massive graphite deposits of crystalline graphite, flake graphite is the main graphite type industry at home and abroad, however, the flake graphite is superior to the large scale graphite. For example, the chahammuhulu graphite mine recently discovered in Alashan League, Inner Mongolia, has a total proven graphite resource of 130 million tons, and the large scale graphite mineral is up to 7.03 million tons, which belongs to the graphite mine with a high proportion of large scale.

"In terms of total amount, China is rich in graphite resources, but there are not many proven large flake graphite resources." Wang Xuequn of the National Non-metallic Ore Deep Processing Engineering Technology Research Institute further explained that China's Graphite resources are mainly distributed in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Hunan, Shandong, Shanxi and Jilin, of which Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang are mainly crystalline graphite, Hunan is mainly cryptocrystalline graphite. In recent years, the identified resources of crystalline graphite in China have increased significantly, and the amount of crystalline graphite minerals increased from 185 million tons in 2010 to 220 million tons in 2013.

"In 2013, China's output of natural graphite was 810,000 tons, accounting for 68% of the global output,  ranked the first in all countries, a total of 127 crystal graphite mining area, cryptocrystalline graphite mining area 30. Flake graphite has the most industrial value. In 2014, China's output of natural flake graphite was 650,000 tons. By the end of November this year, based on the production and operation data of various enterprises and customs statistics, China's natural flake graphite output has reached 610,000 tons, is expected to exceed 700,000 tons in 2015." Wang Xuequn said at a graphite Summit Forum recently.

According to Wang Xuequn, at present, China's annual graphite consumption is about 1.3 million tons, crystalline graphite is mainly used in iron and steel metallurgy and refractory industry, accounting for 40% of the total, followed by casting industry, accounting for 20% of the total, other applications and forging graphite milk, drawing graphite milk, energy saving additives, etc.

Graphite consumption is closely related to the market. Wang Xuequn said that from 2008 to 2013, the total amount of graphite market in China has not changed much, but the structure of graphite products has changed significantly. For expandable graphite made of large flake graphite with more than 80 mesh, because of its large expansion coefficient, the market has been very stable and even in short supply, but the price of low-end graphite products has decreased significantly and the inventory is high. The price of graphite reached the highest value in 2010. The price of some flake graphite can reach 10000 yuan per ton, while the low-end graphite because most enterprises can produce, the competition is more intense, the price per ton is only more than 300 yuan. Compared with low-end graphite, the price of high-purity graphite is relatively high. High purity graphite is the basic raw material of other high value-added deep processing products. After flotation, purification and deep processing, the purity of high purity graphite can reach 99.9%, close to the purity of gold, and the demand for high purity graphite shows a strong growth trend. Wang Xuequn believes that the requirements for graphite products will be higher and higher in the future. In order to avoid fierce market competition, we should develop in the direction of deep processing and produce unique, high value-added and high technical  graphite products. The market demand for such graphite products is also large, such as graphene.

It is understood that graphite processing equipment is developing towards automation and large-scale, and the process goal is short process and low energy consumption. In this regard, there is still a certain gap between China and Japan、Germany. For example, the production of high-purity graphite mainly includes three processing technologies: high temperature method, hydrofluoric acid mixed acid method and alkali acid method. The latter two processing technologies have been applied in China for many years and have been mature. At present, most domestic graphite enterprises adopt hydrofluoric acid mixed acid method, there are individual enterprises did not do hydrofluoric acid environmental protection treatment. Compared with these two technologies, the high-temperature process technology is the most advanced and environmentally friendly, but China has not fully mastered this technology. Although the domestic high-temperature process equipment has also realized pollution-free and environmentally friendly production and the quality of high-purity graphite is also good, it can not realize continuous production, resulting in large power consumption and high production cost. The high-temperature process equipment in Japan and Germany has realized the continuous production of high-purity graphite. Because graphite products are used in military industry, Japan has imposed a blockade on China's graphite processing technology. China's Graphite enterprises and equipment enterprises are working together to solve the problem of "high temperature continuous production", contact us for more related news.