Recently, Changsha Design and Research Institute’s 120,000 ton/year sylvite project feasibility study report won the first prize at the 2012 national excellent project engineering consultation. This is the second time the institute has won the prize since 2006, when it got the first prize for the first time.
The project is in Laos’s Vientiane Plain and involves a wide range of research. The local sylvite is in the form of carnallite, with very special geographical conditions and an underdeveloped industry. After taking into account environment protection, transportation and public facilities, Changsha Institute settled on drilling solution mining. The technology is safe, protects the environment and can significantly raise product quality and reduce mining costs. The process has been acknowledged worldwide and was the first of its kind in China, with great prospects for application. The project will serve as a model for scale mining of potassium chloride and will play an important role in easing the short supply of potash fertilizer in China and adjusting domestic fertilizer structure. It will create social benefits and is an effective endeavor in the “going global” strategy for Chinese potassium resources.
At the moment, the project has been put into operation and has yielded the first batch of qualified potassium chloride, with the product grade reaching 98 percent, a first-rate standard.