China is facing an imbalance in phosphorus resource reserves

Keyword: phosphorus resources, mineral resources, collophanite, annual consumption
Publish time: 23rd April, 2013      Source: CCM
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  Despite much effort to increase phosphorus resource reserves, China still needs to brace itself for an imbalance in phosphorus resource reserves in the face of the fast growing exploitation of phosphorus resources, according to Phosphorus Industry China Monthly Report 1304 issued by CCM in April.
   
  On Mar. 27th, 2013, China's Ministry of Land and Resources published positive data on China's current mineral resources status. The data shows that the proven reserves of phosphorus ore reached 20.74 billion tonnes in China by the end of 2012, increasing by 4.85% compared to that of 2011. However, the newly increasing reserves of phosphorus resources are still incapable of offsetting the annual consumption of phosphorus resources.
   
  In the light of the data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China's basic reserve of phosphorus resources maintained a continued decline. By the end of 2011, China owned 2,893 million tonnes of phosphorus ore whose actual economic value can be exploited under the current mining technology.
   
  Furthermore, China still maintains an accelerating growth in the exploitation of phosphorus ore.
   
  In the first two months of 2013, China produced 12,719,393 tonnes of phosphorus ore with a content of 30% P2O5, increasing by 15.69% compared to that of the same period of last year. It could forecast that the output of phosphorus ore might exceed 100 million tonnes in China in 2013 at the current rate. In recent years, China has maintained a fast growth in the exploitation of phosphorus ore. From 2008 to 2012, the output of phosphorus ore nearly doubled in China, from 49.72 million to 95.78 million tonnes. At the current consumption levels, China can barely provide itself with essential phosphorus resources for more than 40 years under the current mining technology.
   
  China could inject part of its phosphorus ore into the international market in addition to meeting self-sufficiency targets; however, another truth is that China's abundant phosphorus resources are of low grade. Average purity of China’s phosphorus ore is only 17% and 80% of China’s phosphorus ore is middle and low-grade collophanite, which includes plenty of impurities; thus the workload of ore dressing for it is bigger than that for high grade varieties. As the largest phosphorus ore consumption country, China has seen phosphorus ore as a strategic resource for years. For China, therefore, the solution to relieving the potential resource tension is to encourage advancements in low-grade phosphorus ore utilization technology.
   
  Main contents of Phosphorus Industry China Monthly Report 1304:
  China is facing an imbalance in phosphorus resources reserves 
  16 phosphorus mining firms are entitled to export phosphorus ore in 2013        
  Hubei Xingfa to get expansion in phosphorus mining sector
  YunPhos expects to accelerate comprehensive utilization project of yellow phosphorus tail gas  
  Shindoo to step into Vietnam’s fertilizer market     
  MAP to benefit from the booms of water soluble fertilizer in China   
  The US to keep anti-dumping duty on sodium hexametaphosphate from China   
  CXPC‘s 2012 gross profit dropped 46.95%   
  Italmatch Chemicals slips closer to global expansion target
  Market review of prime phosphate chemical in March 2013     
  International trade of phosphate chemicals in Feb. 2013
  Price monitoring of some phosphate chemicals in March 2013
   
  Phosphorus Industry China Monthly Report, issued by CCM on 15th, keeps providing the latest company dynamics related to China’s phosphorus industry, and market analysis on supply and demand, import and export as well as global insight.
   
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