Scanning status quo of China's talc industry

China Powder Network News China is a big country in talc production and a major consumer of talc. The talc is soft, slippery, has high electrical insulation, heat insulation, high melting point and strong adsorption to oil. It is widely used in papermaking, chemical, pharmaceutical, rubber, ceramics, paint, cosmetics and other industries.

China's talc resources are abundant and of good quality. The reserves of resources are 275,853,500 tons, of which the basic reserves are 92.117 million tons, the resources are 18,373,500 tons, and the reserves are the second in the world. China's talc mainly produces relatively stable Precambrian patches. The ancient land margin or plate subduction zone, the deposits are distributed in 20 provinces (districts), and the resources are relatively large in Liaoning, Shandong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, and Qinghai provinces, with more than 90% of the national talc reserves.

Over the years, the annual output of talc in China has been maintained at around 2 million tons. Due to the global economic slowdown in recent years, and the fact that most of the main ore bodies in domestic mines have gradually entered the mine renovation period, the output has dropped to about 1.8 million tons. In 2017, due to the impact of environmental remediation, production is expected to fall below 1.5 million tons.

The production and processing of white talc mainly focuses on the three bases of Liaoning, Guangxi and Shandong. Jiangxi is the country's largest black talc producing area, but due to the mining rights issue, the black talc in Jiangxi is now in a state of suspension.

Most of the talc mining uses mechanical and artificial methods, and it is easy to exploit open-pit mining, such as Guangxi Longsheng Guping and Chicken Claw Talc, and Jiangxi Guangfeng Black Talc Mine. Because some areas of talc are associated with magnesite, many mines also use open-pit mining for talc and magnesite, such as Haicheng in Liaoning and some mines in Laizhou, Shandong. Secondly, open pit mining is also based on machinery. Mining methods, such as Shandong Pingdu talc mine. Lu Cai adopts a multi-export mining system, which is mainly based on combined step mining. In addition, most of them are underground mining, which are developed by means of flat roads, inclined shafts, shafts, etc. Mining is commonly used in three categories: open field mining method, natural caving method and filling mining method, such as Qixia and some mines in Haicheng, Liaoning.

At present, the processing of talc in China mainly adopts dry processing . The level of overall processing equipment between talc enterprises is uneven. Some enterprises have reached the international leading level in equipment processing level and testing equipment level, and some will do the mining area work site and powder processing factory. It has reached digital control, automatic monitoring and management, and built a modern talc processing base. The processing level of most small enterprises still stays in the Raymond mill era ten years ago, in the talc rough processing stage.

Talc is a silicate mineral with a layered structure, and wet processing is a new direction for the development of the industry. Wet processing has been very popular in the calcium carbonate industry, but the wet production of ultrafine talcum powder is still in its infancy in China. With the development and utilization of domestic eddy current ultrafine grinding equipment, wet grinding can produce narrow particle size distribution. The ultra-fine talcum powder is mainly used in high-end ceramics, plastics, high-grade paper, paint and other industries. From the development direction, the wet processing of talc is a new direction for the research of talc industry in China, and it is a new way to solve the middle and low grade talc.

Market Status: China's annual output of talc is maintained at around 700,000 tons, making it the world's number one talc exporter.

Domestic market: In the 1980s, talc industry products began to standardize production, gradually producing paper-grade talcum powder and pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food-grade talcum powder, cable, rubber, plastic grade talcum powder, with an annual sales volume of 2.5 million tons. With the development of the non-metallic mineral industry, the paper-grade filler-grade talc powder is gradually replaced by calcium carbonate. The consumption of talc in the papermaking industry is greatly reduced, but most of the low-grade talc mixtures such as talc-magnesite, talc-dolomite, etc. The price is low and it is still used in the domestic paper industry. Due to the flaky structure of talc, it has good bending strength and impact strength for polymer materials. In recent years, it has benefited from the rapid development of the automotive industry, and the amount of talc powder has gradually increased. However, due to the influence of environmental protection, ultra-fine talcum powder will be gradually replaced by talc masterbatch in the new material industry in the future. Accelerating the transfer to high-end products and increasing the added value of products is the development direction of China's talc industry. In the domestic market, the application fields of low-grade talc and calcium carbonate are almost the same, but the price of talc is higher than that of calcium carbonate. The market is in a state of oversupply; high-grade talc is still in short supply due to its good talc characteristics. Due to the impact of environmental protection this year, some talc enterprises in Liaoning and Shandong have stopped production, resulting in low-to-medium talc. However, with the rectification of mining enterprises and production recovery, the tight supply of talc will gradually ease.

From the international market of talc , the international market is crucial to the development of China's talc industry, with exports accounting for about 35% of production. In recent years, the price of talc in China has been affected by national policies. The export price of talc has increased year by year, which has led to the rapid increase of exports of emerging talc countries. Now China’s annual output of talc is maintained at 700,000 tons, which is still the world’s first talc export. country. In 2017, China canceled the export tariff of talc and the export quota of talc, which is beneficial to the export of talc industry. However, due to the significant increase in mining cost and environmental treatment cost, the export price of talc is still higher than that of Pakistan and India.

Second, the overall R&D capability and technical level of the industry are low. Mainly manifested in: lack of industrial high-purity processing technology and equipment, products can not meet the needs of high-tech products; ultra-fine pulverization and fine grading equipment in the production of large-scale, product quality, process control intelligent, etc. have certain defects; special The quality of surface modified products for use needs to be improved. With the improvement of environmental standards, the carrierless talcum powder granulation will gradually become the first choice in the downstream application industry.

Recommendation: Accelerate industrial restructuring, independent innovation, and promote green cleaner production

First, increase the exploration of talc resources and increase resource reserves. According to the evaluation results of China's talc mineral resources potential, the first is to further expand the scope of exploration in the main producing areas; the second is to increase the exploration intensity in the central and western regions according to geological data. According to the new industrial policy of the country, the investment of exploration funds can be market-oriented. The industry associations take the lead and adopt a combination of state funds and private funds to accelerate the exploration of talc resources and provide a strong resource guarantee for the development of the industry. .

Second, accelerate the adjustment of industrial structure. Relying on resource origin and industrial base, enterprises are encouraged to break geographical boundaries and build talc mining and processing bases based on the four major talc producing areas of Shandong, Liaoning, Guangxi and Jiangxi. Through different forms of restructuring and mergers and acquisitions to form large enterprise groups, the industrial concentration will be further improved, low-cost competition between industries in the same region will be avoided, and the comprehensive strength of the industry will compete with foreign mining multinationals.

Third, build an independent and innovative industry. Taking independent innovation as the driving force, making full use of the advantages and characteristics of China's talc resources, increasing the development of low-grade talc mineral resources comprehensive utilization technology, through ultra-fine grinding, new surface modification, mineral purification, low-temperature (energy-saving) calcination purification technology, compound The deep processing technology of nano material preparation, the development of new products, the formation of an industrial chain with independent intellectual property rights, and promote the development of the industry from extensive to intensive.

Fourth, promote green cleaner production. Promote the green transformation of traditional manufacturing industries, promote the establishment of a green and low-carbon recycling industrial system; abandon the market concept of simply winning by quantity and low-price marketing, properly control the market scale, increase the added value of products and the competitiveness of the international market; increase environmental pollution Governance efforts to comprehensively improve the quality of the ecological environment. In the talc production area with rich resources and strong management and innovation capabilities, the construction of green mining development demonstration zone will be carried out.

(China Powder Network Editing / Sancha)