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    ABOUT SALT LAKES
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    1. What is a salt lake?

    Fresh water is the water there are less than 0.1% (1 g/L) inorganic substances, and these lakes were called fresh lake.

         

    Salt water is the water there are 0.1%-3.5% (1-35 g/L) inorganic substances, and these lakes were called fresh lake. 

    The lakes were called salt lake there is more than 3.5%(35 g/L) salts, and there lakes were formed in the end of the process of evolution and development.

    There are many salt lakes in China, salt lake is the lake there are more than 5.0%(50 g/L) salts, and the dry salt lake is there are intercrystalline brine but no surface brine.

    2. How to determination the brine salinity in the lake?

    The brine salinity is the quantity of inorganic salts in the lake.

    The main salt types are Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, SO42-, HCO3- and CO32-, and the other compositions can be ignored. So the brine salinity was calculated according to the quantity of the main salt types.

    3. How many salt lakes are there in China?

    According to investigation, there are more than 1000 salt lakes, and the areas is about 50000 km2. Among them, there are more than 800 salt lakes and their areas more than 1 km2. the total area is about 40000 km2, and salt lake is the main type of natural lakes in China.

    4. The distribution of salt lakes in the world

    There are salt lake areas in equatorial regions, and both hemispheres on the earth. Modern salt lakes mainly are located drought zone of both hemispheres in the world. Lake Chad in Africa, dead sea in West Asia, Chaerhan Salt Lake in China and great salt lake in America also are located drought zone of northern hemisphere.

    There are Southern Africa and South America in drought zone of Southern hemisphere. There are only small carbonate-type salt lakes in Southern Africa. And there is many salt lakes in Australia. There are Salar de Salt Lake , Larry tiri salt lake, Salar de Uyuni ,and so on in South America.

    There are some salt lakes in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and these lakes are located equatorial regions.

    5. The distribution of salt lake in China

    China is the most populous countries of salt lake distribution, the number and distribution of dense are rare in the world.

    In the north and east of our country, there are many salt lakes. For example, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang and so on. In these areas, the total area of salt lakes is about 40000 km2. there are 790 lakes their area are more than 1 km2.

     Locations of world salt lakes

    Locations of China salt Lakes

    6. Distribution characteristics of salt lakes

    The distribution of salt lakes has 3 characteristics, include zonal, regional and uniformity.

    In our country, the distribution of salt lakes has zonal mainly in a horizontal direction.

    The distribution of salt lakes is very uniformity in our country, some regions have many salt lakes, but some regions is almost no salt lakes.

    7. Salt lake resources in our country  

    Salt lake is rich in natural resources in our country, not only have salt deposited resources, also have brine resources, biological resources and tourism resources. Among them, salt deposited and brine are mainly natural resources. In these lakes, there are common salts they include halite, mirabilite, trona, and common development of the national economy urgently, magnesium, potassium nitrate and boron salt, lithium salts and available for comprehensive exploitation and utilization of the Rb and Cs, uranium and thorium precious metal resources, etc.

    There are 70 minerals of salt deposits from salt lakes, including 18 Carbonate minerals, 14 borates, 8 chloride minerals, 25 sulfates and 5 nitrate.

     

        Bischofite             Halite salt layer

    Brine Resources

    Brine Resources, including brine in the surface of salt lake, intercrystalline brine and brine in the Silt. The brine in the surface and intercrystalline brine are the main types.

    Salt ditch

    Brines contain more than 60 species composition in China, and the main chemical composition contain Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, SO42-, HCO3- and CO32-, the Minor components contain Heavy metal element, Heavy radioactive elements and rare alkali metal elements and so on.

    Biological resources in salt lakes:

    Biological resources include Animals and plants resources. Plants mainly include dunaliella salina, reed, rose willow. Animals mainly include barhead goose, brown Headed Gull, yellow duck, artemia etc.

        

        Fish for artemia           Artemia in Ebinur Lake

    Tourism resources:

    Tourism resources are very rich and these region have many tourist attractions, have the greatly attractive. The most tourist attractions is solid salt bridge.

         

    Solid salt bridge

     

    8. How to classify the types of salt lakes?

    There are three principles for classifying the types of salt lakes: one is based on the brine existing state, another is according to the salt sediments and the other one is in terms of the chemical components of the brine.

    The salt lakes can be classified into brinish lake, dry salt lake and undersand lake based on the principle of brine existing state.

    The characteristic of brinish lake is that the superficial brine always exists and the salt sediments can only be located at the lakefront or some central part. The water level in the lake would fluctuate with the seasons changing while the superficial brine would not disappear for ever. The main characteristic of the dry salt lake is that it is existed as dry state almost all the time, and the temporarily superficial brine may emerge only in the humid seasons. The wide dry saltland that was naked in the air was formed due to the persistent subject to wind, rain, intense sunshine as well as evaporation which result in the salt separating out from the brine and lead to the chap of the land surface, just like being ploughed if it is observed from beyond. Take the Qarhan Salt Lake for example, people are often puzzled where the salt lake is because they can not find it while searching for it everywhere. As a matter of fact, the Qarhan salt lake is located in sight or even at where you stand. The Ca Er Han Salt Lake is a huge dry salt lake. Undersand lake is defined as the lake has no superficial brine all the time, the water level is relatively stable owing to the less exchange between the brine and the outer environment, and it will fluctuate minutely on the premise of rain water seeping or salt precipitating out the brine. Another intuitionistic property of undersand lake is that the top layer of salt sediments is covered by clay or quicksand, thus, no replenishment from the surface runoff can be obtained over the whole year.

    According to the salt sediments, the salt lakes can be classified into rock salt lake, mirabilite lake, alkali lake, borate lake and potassium-magnesium lake.

    In China, the widely used principle for categorizing the salt lake is on the basis of chemical components of the brine. The salt lakes include carbonate, sulphate (Sodium sulfate and magnesium sulfate subtypes) and chloride salt lakesThe chemical compositions of brine display the characteristics of physical and chemical roles and the balance system of water and salts.

     

    Solution cavity in salt lakes

    Stalactitic salt in Qarhan Salt Lake

    9. The types of salt lake in China

    China not only has a large number of salt lakes but also the types of complete, which completely displays our advantages and characteristics.

    According to the chemical composition of the brine, there are carbonate, sulphate and chloride salt lakes in China.

    According to the types of mineral salts, China has not only normal but also unusual salt lakes, normal salt lakes include rock salt lakes, mirabilite lakes and natural soda lakes; unusual salt lakes include gypsum lake, potassium-magnesium salt lake, boron lake, lithium lake and nitrate (Potassium) lake that is peculiar in the world.

         

       

    10. The conditions for forming salt lakes

    There are three conditions for forming salt lakes: firstly, there must be a closed or semi-enclosed basin catchment; secondly, there must be a rich source of salinities in the basin catchment; thirdly, there are climate fluctuations under the persistent drought for the basin catchment with a rich source of salinities.

    11. The sources of the salinities

      There are many kinds of sources of the salinities in the lakes, different sources for different salt lakes. The main source of salinities for sea salt lake is seawater; In case of Chinese mainland salt lakes, the main sources of salinities are weathering of surface rocks, salts in the Earth's interior magma, as well as re-dissolving of ancient depositions and deep water.

    12. How are the sea salt lakes formed?

    In coastal areas, water is shallow. Because of the long-term washing and erosion of ocean currents and waves on shoreline, the eroded sand was stacked and formed sandbank in some areas down the shoreline; Or the sandbank was formed near to bayou when the sand was carried into sea by rivers, and the sandbank was isolated slowly from the sea areas near to mainland to form sea salt lake.

    13. How are the mainland salt lakes formed?

    There are two kinds of force to form the mainland salt lakes: interior force and exterior force.

    The interior movement of the Earth, especially the crustal movement contributes to the interior force; the force forming by the environment of the Earth surface results in the exterior force.

    The interior force results in the crustal movement, which contribute to the earth curve and fracture, the nether regions of curve or fracture was formed to the centre of the lake; The formation of basin lake is related to activities of volcano.

    The salt lake formed by the exterior force ( such as water erosion stacking, sand ablation stacking, glacial scour stackingof Budasun cavern) is called erosion lake by geology.

    14. The main salt lake areas in China

    There are four big salt lake areas in China: Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

    Tibet

    Tibet

      Yiwu salt lake topography

    Jilantai Salt lake,
     Inner Mongolia

     

    15. Salt lakes in Qinghai

    Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is famous salt lake area, its characteristics have high sea level, complicated topography, big area and centralized distribution of salt lakes.  

    The characteristics of salt lake in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are that the area of salt deposits is bigger than lake water. There are 71 salt lakes, and the total area is 18986.38 km2. in Qaidam Basin, there are 43 salt lakes , and the total area is 16509 km2. In Hoh Xil, there are 28 salt lakes, and the total area is 2476 km2.

    Salt lake areas in Qaidam Basin:

    1)     Salt lake subregions of Da Qaidam-Mahai and keke-cha ka

    Salt lake subregion of Da Qaidam-Mahai: There are more more than 10 salt lakes, and the total area isabout 2000 km2. The main salt deposits contain halite, borate, K-Mg salt and so on. There are K, B, Li and so on in brine.

    Salt lake subregion of keke-cha ka: There are about 4-5 salt lakes , and the total area is about 300 km2. the main salt deposits contain halite, mirabilite and astrakanite.  

    2)     Salt lake subregions of Kunteyi-Yiliping and Qarham

    Salt lake subregion of Kunteyi-Yiliping: there are Kunteyi, Yiliping, and Taijinaier salt lakes. the main salt deposits contain haliteK-Mg salt and mirabilite. Brine have abundant lithium, and this area is the main raw material base of lithium salt.

    Salt lake subregion of Qarham: There are Qarham salt lake and other 10 salt lakes, and the total area is more than 5800 km2. The thickness of salt deposits is about 70 m, the main salt deposits contain halite, K-Mg salt. And there are also B, Li and so on in brine.  

    3)     Salt lake subregions of Naisiku-Mangya and Dalangtan

    Salt lake subregion of Qarhan of Naisiku-Mangyathe main salt deposits contain halite and mirabilite. There are B, Li, K, and Mg and so on in brine on the surface of lake.

    Salt lake subregion of Qarhan: the main salt deposits contain halite and so on. There are B, Li, K, and Mg and so on in intercrystalline brine.
    4) There are 6 huge dry salt lakes: Mahai, Kunteyi, Dalangtan, Chahansilatu, Yiliping, Qarhan. The quantity of salt deposits is the most in the world. For example, salt can supply for all people in the world only in Qarham. Other salt resource reserves are: MgCl2 1600 million tons, KCl 150 million tons, LiCl 842 million tons, B2O3 448 million tons, Br2 17 million tons, I2 0.8 million tons, Rb2O 3.8 million tons.  

    Salt lake areas in Hoh Xil:  

    There are 28 salt lakes that area more than 1km2, and the total area 2476 km2 in this area. In salt lake subregion of Dong Kunlun, there are 23 salt lakes and the total area is 1761 km2.  In Hoh Xil, there are the brine on the surface of all lakes were formed on the beginning of the process of evolution and development. There are not carbonate type salt lake in Qinghai, the main type is sulphate, the most is magnesium sulfate sub-type, and some lakes is chloride type. These lakes is high salinity; and the salinity is about 211097.13 mg/L, the highest  salinity is 555065.0 mg/L, the relative density is 1.0200-1.3384, the pH is 6-8, there are large numbers of B, Li, K, Mg. So these lakes have high utilization value and are precious resources in Qinghai. The salt deposits have 42 species, including 6 Carbonate minerals, 13 borates, 7 chloride minerals and so on.

     

    16. The introduction of salt lakes in Tibet

    Tibet Plateau is one of the most densely populated areas of salt lakes in our country, the highest elevation area of salt lakes, the quantity and types of salt lakes is the most. In this area, there are about 500 salt lakes and the total area is 8225 km2.

    Zhacang-Chaka Salt Lake, Tibet

    In these lakes, there are 234 lakes that their area is more than 1 km2, the total area is 8150.18 km2. in the north of Tibet Plateau, there are 218 salt lakes and this area is the main salt lake area. in the south of Tibet Plateau, there are 14 salt lakes, and in the east of Tibet Plateau only have 2 salt lakes.

    In Tibet, there are 39 salt lakes and the area of these lakes is more than 50 km2, the total area is 4100 km2. the elevation of lakes is more than 4500 m, and some lakes is more than 5000 m. the highest salt lake is Qingche lake and the elevation is more than 5100. the main salt lakes include Bange-Cuo, Zhacang-Chaka, Xiao-Chaka and so on.

    In Tibet Plateau, there are 3 salt lake areas, including the north of Tibet Plateau, the east of Tibet Plateau and the south of Tibet Plateau.

    In Tibet Plateau the brine is high salinitybasic, and the pH value is 7-9.3, the relative density is 1.030-1.329, the salinity is 50-350 g/L and the highest salinity is 365 g/L. the main elements include Na, K,  Mg, Ca, but B, Li, Rb, Cs also have higher quantity in brine. There are more than 40 minerals in salt deposits , including 16 Carbonate minerals, 8 borates, 4 chloride minerals and 12 sulfates. The main salt deposits have halite, mirabilite, lancasterite and borate.

    17. The introduction of salt lakes in Inner Mongolia

    There are 375 salt lakes and the total areas is 1441 km2 in Inner Mongolia.The main distribution region of salt lakes are Hulun Buir, Siklingelei, Erdos and Alxa. The area of lakes is small in Inner Mongolia. There are only 2 salt lakes their area are more than 100 km2, they are Gashunnuoer and Jartai.

    In Inner Mongolia, there are 4 salt lake areas, including Hulun Buir, Siklingelei-Ulan Qab, Erdos and Alxa.

    The main types of lake are carbonate and sulfate, and no chloride lake. The brine have surface and intercrystalline, and intercrystalline brine is main. The main compositions are Na, Cl, SO4 and CO3. the salt deposits have 23 species, including 11 carbonate minerals, 2 chloride minerals and 10 sulfates.

         

    Salt Layer of Jilantai Salt Lake

            

    18. Salt lakes in Xinjiang

    There are 112 salt lakes and the total area is 10789 km2. In Altaic, Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun-Aerhchin Mountains basin, there are 81 salt lakes and this area is the main distribution region. In Dzungarian and Tarim Basin, there are 31 salt lakes.

    In Xinjiang, there are 5 salt lake areas, including Zhunge--Altaic basin, Zhunger Basin, Tianshan Mountains basin, Dzungarian and Tarim Basin and Kunlun-Aerhchin Mountains basin.

    Most lakes in Xinjiang are dry salt lakes. Only 17 lakes have surface brine. The area of Lop Nor is 5500 km2, is the biggest dry salt lake in Xinjiang. The average elevation of salt lakes in Xinjiang is 1429.23 m. the elevation of whale lake is 4708 m, but the elevation of Aydingkol is -155, the phenomenon is very rare in the world.

    The main type of salt lake is sulfate. The minor type are carbonate and chloride. The minerals have 38 species. nitratemineral, especially KNO3 is rare in the world.

                

    Aydingkol salt lake                       Ebinur Lake

      

    19. The characteristics of salt lake resources in China

    The characteristics of Chinese salt lake resources can be summarized as follows: multiple, large, rich and complete.

    The so-called "multiple" refers to many kinds of mineral resources in the large quantity salt lakes in China. There are salt lakes everywhere in Xinjiang and Tibet Autonomous Region and Qaidan Basin in Qinghai is called to be “the salty world”. Solid mineral resources in salt lakes are very rich in raw materials and the types of minerals are complete. Among them, the halite, mirabilite, gypsum, sal ammoniac soda, borate, magnesium salt, sylvite, strontium salt and so on can be exploited on a large scale. Besides there are many types of deposits in the liquid mineral resources in salt lakes, such as strontium, magnesium, lithium, rubidium, cesium, potassium, boron, bromine, iodine, uranium and so on.

    The so-called " large " refers to the large area and reserves of certain salts mineral resource in some of Salt Lake in China. For example, Qiadan Salt Lake in Qaidan Basin, with a total area of over 5800 square km, 5 times larger than that of the Dead Sea in Western Asia, and 1.6 times larger than that of American Utah's big salt. Moreover, there are 10 billion tons of the chloride (rock salt, magnesium chloride, lithium chloride) reserves in Qiadan Salt Lake.


    The so-called "rich" refers to the high ore-grade of (0)

    ()

    some certain minerals in Salt Lake. For example, in some of our Salt Lake, boron content can be as high as 1.4g/L, lithium 2g/L rubidium, cesium and uranium as high as dozens of mg/L.

    The so-called "complete" refers to the complete type of salt lake deposits. In salt lake area of our country, the ore types of the carbonate deposits like Trona deposits, magnesite deposits etc., the sulfate deposits like Glauber's salt deposits, gypsum deposits, lapis lazuli etc., chloride deposits like halite ore deposit, the sylvinite ore deposit, the carnallite ore deposit, the bischofite ore deposit etc., and borate ore deposit like the natural borax, the ulexite, pinnoite, inderite, kurnakovite and water-boracite ore deposit etc. are very complete.

    20. How many types of mineral resources in Chinese Salt Lake?

    There are five types of mineral resources in Chinese Salt Lake: carbonate, sulfate, chloride, borate, brine resources.

    Among the types of mineral resources in Chinese Salt Lake, the Trona deposits and magnesite deposits are the carbonat with industrial significance; the Glauber's salt deposits, gypsum deposits, lapis lazuli are the sulfate ones; the halite ore deposit, the carnallite ore deposit, the magnesium chloride and calcium chloride resources are the chloride ones; the borax (Na2B4O7·10H2O), the rasorite (Na2B4O7·4H2O), the ulexite (CaNaB5O9·8H2O), the pinnoite (MgB2O4·3H2O) and the kurnakovite (Mg2B6O11·15H2O) are the borate ones.

    The salt of resources Salt Lake can be divided into three types: boron-lithium brine deposits of carbonate, boron-lithium brine deposits of sulfate and potassium-magnesium brine deposits of carbonate.

    21. How do kinds of Salt Lake mineral resources distribute in Chinese salt lake areas?

         

    Tronalancasterite found Inner Mongolia salt lake areas

    Lancasterite from the Lake Bangkog in Tibet

    Mirabilite deposit from the Lake Aydingkol in Xinjiang

       

    Mirabilite crystals from a Xinjiang salt lake

    Gypsum crystal clusters from DaQaidan Lake, Qaidam Basin

    Astrakanite from the Taijinar West                      

    Salt lake carbonate resources: The trona ore of salt are mainly distributed in the Inner Mongolian salt lake area, with a total reserves of trona and soda of thousands of tons (NaHCO3+Na2CO3), and the Qagan Nur lake is one of the biggest trona ore; the hydromagnesite are mainly distributed in Tibet salt lake area, and the Bankog lake has a large deposit scale.

    Salt lake Sulfate resources: the mirabilite resources of salt are distributed in the Inner Mongolian, Xingjiang, Qinghai and Tibet salt lake area. Some smaller scale of mirabilite resources are widely distributed in the Inner Mongolia and Xingjiang salt lake area, and the East Dabancheng salt lake and East Qijiaojing salt pond are known to have large mirabilite deposits. The mirabilite resources in Qinghai salt lake area are very rich, observes the Hans lattu ore deposit scale to be biggest, the personal status is best, the mining condition is superior; Tibet salt lake area's modern salt lake mirabilite deposition grows, the ore deposit scale is common above hundred million tons, like Baingoin is wrong, Guo Jialin is wrong, the Iraqi cloth tea card, grips salt lakes and so on warehouse tea card. The celestine resources only distribute in the Qinghai salt lake area Qaidan Basin mid-west, famous has the gale mountain, the apex mountain ore deposit. In the sulfate salt lake the gypsum deposition growth is widespread, but has not constituted the large-scale ore deposit. The astrakhanite distributes in the Shanxi Yuncheng salt lake and middle Qaidan Basin some salt lakes, the sulfuric acid sylvite deposition only discovers in Zarb Ye Lake of Tibet and big Lakes Beach region of Qinghai.

         

     

     

    Block mass of pinnoite from silt layer of Xiao Qaidan Salt Lake , Qinghai

     

     

    Salt shell consisting of season bittern surface rapidly separated halite composition floats

     

     

     

    Pearl salt formed in salty shell of the Dabsan Lake shore forms

         

     

     

    Borax crystals from the Bankog Lake, Tibet

     

     

    Fibrous and acicular crystals of ulexite

    Gobbet ulexite from DaQaidan Lake, Qinghai

    Salt lake chloride resources: The halite resources are very widespread in Chinese salt lake, and the most well known ones include Jartai, Salt Lake yabrai in Inner Mongolian, Baytik salt pond in Xinjiang, chaka, keke and Cha Er Han salt lake in Qinghai, markov, Zarb Ye Chaka salt lake in Tibet. And salt lake chloride resources in Qinghai salt lake area are most abundant.

         

     Celestite sedimentaries from the west of Qaidam Basin

     

     Gypsum crystal (swallow-tail twin) from Qaidam Basin

    Halite crystals from Qaidam Basin

     

    Salt lake borate resources: The salt lake borate resources mainly distributed in Qinghai and Tibet salt lake areas, especially in the North Tibet lake area. The Qinghai borate resources mainly distribute in Dachaidan and Xiao Chaldan Salt Lake, pinnoite and ulexite being the main ore type; in modern salt lake of Tibet, the borate deposition is mainly distributed in Bangonghu, Chiao Tung zone and many salt lakes nearby the North Tibet road like Baingoin, Guogaringcuo and in Neiercuo, Zacangchaka salt lakes etc. In addition there are also massive borate deposition hosted in Ka-erh Kunsa, Cha-rakka and Zhabuyechaka Salt Lake in Ngari area.

         

    Halite containing iron oxide

    Halite crystals from the west of Qaidam Basin

    Kurnakovite sedimentaries from Zacang Chake, Tibet

         

    Celestite from north of Dabuxun Lake

    Spherulitic celestite from Dabuxun Lake

    Celestite from the north beach of Dabuxun Lake

    (on top of map cracking)

       

    Salt lake bittern resources: The salt lake bittern resources are distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and Tibet salt lake areas. Xinjiang, Inner Mongolian, Tibet salt lake areas distribute mostly the sulfate, chloride and carbonate of sodium. There are abundant chloride-type brine resources but no carbonate-type brine in Qinghai salt lake areas, with the potassium chloride resources reserves accounting for above 70% of soluble salt resources reserves. Like the Tibet salt lake area, the sulfate, chloride and borate of sodium, potassium, magnesium and lithium are the main salt resources in Qinghai salt lake area. 

     

    22. The status of Salt Lake resources in national economy development

       

    Field investigation of scientific research personnels in The North Shaous Lake, Manasi Lake and Qijiao mining saltern.

    Salt lake is a great treasure house of salts resources, the total reserves of the various salts resources in Chinese modern Salt Lake is very giant. It means, about hundreds of billions tons of halite, one billion tons of Glauber and magnesium salt, respectively, hundreds of millions of tons of potassium salt and 10 million tons of borate salt, lithium salt and Trona, respectively. If processed into primary products, the potential economic value will be nearly 100 trillion yuan.

         

    Salt-mining ships working  Great salt field     Carnallite mineral

            

    Carnallite mining   

    The halite, the mirabilite, the sylvite, the magnesium, the lithium and the borate, the strontium, rubidium, cesium salt and some other salts in salt lake have a widespread application prospect in various departments of national economy, such as agriculture, food, building materials, chemical industry, metallurgy, medicine, electron, energy, military. Especially, the development and utilization of lithium, magnesium, rubidium, cesium resources will promote our Chinese national economy development.

    The four major Chinese salt lake districts are in arid and semi-arid regions, the dry and windy climate, strong sunshine and fast transpiration rate make the natural isolation technique using the natural energy applicable. The so-called natural phase separation technology, is to separate a variety of salts from the brine one-by-one sectionally to be product or raw materials for further process, or to concentrate certain kinds of elements to meet the technical requirements for processing, using solar energy, wind energy or selectively freezing and other methods. At present more than 30 domestic salt lakes have been developed and utilized.

    The Inner Mongolia salt lake area's main products include halite, sodium sulfate, sodium sulfide, sodium bicarbonate, the soda ash and caustic soda and so on. Its biggest salt-producting enterprises are the Jartai salt chemicals Group and yabrai saltwork; the Yuncheng salt lake in Shanxi province has a long history of development and utilization, and the main products are glauber salt and sodium sulfide; Trona mining in Inner Mongolia has decades of history, and Chagannuoer has the largest production scale.

    The Xinjiang salt lake area's main sodium sulfate, glauber salt and Small Amount of sodium sulfide.The industrial production of potassium sulfate Lop Nur Salt Lake had already begun the prologue.

    The Tibet salt lake area only has a little development of the halite and the borate. The processing industry of Salt Lake mineral resources in this area is just start.

    The Qinghai salt lake area's main products include halite, potassium chloride, the bischofite, the mirabilite, the glauber salt, the soda ash and the borax, and the lithium salt and potassium sulfate industry are to be industrialized. The largest enterprises are the Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Group Co., Ltd., using intercrystalline brine of Qarhan Salt Lakes through deep water solar ponds process to product Carnallite, cold decomposition-flotation and anti-flotation technology of carnallite, the production capacity of potassium chloride has reached to 1,000,000 tons. The Chaka and Ke-Ke saltern are the main Halite production enterprises.

     

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    Zhang Pengxi. Silence Treasure-salt lake. Jinan university press, Tsinghua university press. 2000.

    2.

    Zheng Xiyu, Zhang Minggang,Xu Chang,Li Bingxiao, the introduction os salt lakes in China. Science press.2002.

    3.

    Zhang Pengxi, et al. salt lakes in chaidamud basin. Science press.1987.

    4.

    Zheng Xiyu,Li Bingxiao,Gao Zhanghong, et al.Salt Lakes in Xinjiang. Science press.1995.

    5.

    Scientific investigating team of qinghai-tibet plateau, CAS.Salt Lakes in Tibet. Science press.1988.

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    Zheng Xiyu, et al. Salt Lakes in Inner Mongolia. Science press.1992.

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    Zhang Pengxi,Zhang Baozhen,Tang Yuan, et al. salt lake and its development and utilization in China. Science press.1999.

     

     

     

     

    Copyright © 1997-, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences