Why does abandoned tailings become "gold sand and silver sand"--A visit to Longhua to accelerate the construction of a phosphorus-titanium industry cluster

Tailings, which used to be discarded as waste, is now supporting a circular economy industrial chain that promotes the high-quality development of county economy.

Longhua County adheres to the green, high-end and intelligent direction, extracts titanium and phosphorus resources from iron ore by comprehensive mining and separation, makes efficient use of vanadium-titanium magnetite resources, and introduces R & D technology for the production of high-end titanium materials. promote the production of one million tons of phosphate compound fertilizer project to achieve results, synchronously promote new building materials and rare and precious metal extraction industry, and speed up the construction of a strong county of phosphorus and titanium industry.

The value of waste tailings has doubled.

On October 9, in a mining enterprise mining workshop in Hanmaying Town, Longhua County, pieces of iron ore were transported into a comprehensive mining machine through a conveyor belt, and iron powder, titanium powder and phosphorus powder were extracted successively.

According to the person in charge of the enterprise, the iron concentrate can only be selected from iron ore mining, and the rest can be discharged into the tailings reservoir as tailings. Due to the fluctuation of the price of iron concentrate powder, a single mining method makes enterprises often operate at a loss.

Chengde is the largest vanadium and titanium resource base in northern China, and the total proven vanadium-titanium magnetite resources account for more than 40% of the country's proven reserves. As the core area of vanadium-titanium magnetite, Longhua is rich in titanium and phosphorus resources. The county's proven exploitable titanium reserves rank second in the country, with phosphate rock reserves of 19.23 million tons.

In order to maximize the use of mineral resources and improve the operating conditions of enterprises, Longhua County organized relevant technical experts to tackle key scientific and technological problems, developed comprehensive mining and separation equipment, and popularized them all over the world. The waste tailings sand in the past has become the "gold sand and silver sand" for extracting titanium powder and phosphorus powder.

Walking into the production workshop of Chengde Tiantong Metallurgical Co., Ltd., using China's leading technologies such as closed titanium slag furnace smelting and high temperature flue gas purification, three titanium slag furnaces upgraded in an all-round way are in full operation. a furnace of high titanium slag with a price of about 8000 yuan per ton is coming out one after another.

"We are speeding up the project with an annual production capacity of 100000 tons of high titanium slag to further increase the production capacity of 90 per cent grade high titanium slag." Han Chunliang, deputy general manager of Chengde Tiantong Metallurgical Co., Ltd., said that high titanium slag is a high-quality raw material for the production of titanium dioxide, titanium sponge and other high-quality raw materials, and has been widely used in aerospace, shipping, automobile, medical equipment and other manufacturing fields.

According to reports, Longhua County will take Chengde Tiantong Metallurgical Co., Ltd. as the leader, deepen cooperation with university scientific research institutes, promote the expansion and quality of titanium products, speed up the introduction of high-end titanium material production R & D technology and titanium medical equipment, sports and leisure products, expand the range of chain-end products, and make every effort to create a complete industrial chain of "titanium powder → high titanium slag → titanium sponge titanium → titanium → 3D printing titanium alloy material".

Turning waste from iron separation enterprise into treasure

Chengdeli River Fertilizer Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Lihe Fertilizer Industry), located in Longhua Economic Development Zone, has entered the stage of equipment installation and commissioning of the 600000-ton dual compound fertilizer technical renovation project started this year, and will be put into trial production by the end of October. After it is put into production, the annual output value is expected to reach more than 700 million yuan, and the tax revenue is more than 27 million yuan.

"the phosphate powder extracted from the waste of iron separation enterprises is the main raw material for our company to produce fertilizer." Jin Haifeng, deputy general manager of Lihe Fertilizer Industry, said that the grade of Longhua phosphate rock is more than 33%, and the water solubility of its products is more than 90%. The advantages of enriched resources and the geographical advantages of the two major grain producing areas adjacent to North China and Northeast China provide unique conditions for the development of enterprises.

After years of development, Lihe fertilizer industry products cover diammonium phosphate, granular monoammonium phosphate, powdered monoammonium phosphate, industrial monoammonium phosphate and other varieties. The products are not only sold in many places throughout the country, but also exported to India, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and other countries, the company has become an important manufacturer of monoammonium phosphate and diammonium phosphate in northern China.

In order to further give play to the advantages of resources, expand the industrial scale and enhance the competitiveness of products, in July 2021, Stanley Agricultural Group, a leading enterprise in China's chemical fertilizer industry, controlled Lihe Fertilizer Industry, based on the advantages of resources, location and market, invested 925 million yuan to build an annual production project of 1 million tons of phosphate and compound fertilizer. after the project is fully put into production, it will become a large-scale production base of one million tons of phosphate and compound fertilizer in the north.

Speed up the building of circular economy industrial chain

The Lihe fertilizer industry, which turns tailings into treasure, will also produce a large amount of waste-phosphogypsum in the production process. "with the expansion of the production scale, the amount of phosphogypsum produced each year will be calculated in millions of tons. If there is no good treatment, it will not only require a larger and larger storage yard, but also increase the cost of enterprise management and protection." Jin Haifeng pointed to a snow-white phosphogypsum mountain on the east side of the plant.

Phosphogypsum, which once worried the fertilizer industry in Lihe, was transported by trucks to the new building materials industry park a few kilometers away. In the production workshop of Taishan Gypsum Chengde Co., Ltd., the 220-meter-long production line has gone through many processes such as calcination, paper supply, batching, solidification, cutting, transportation and so on. Ready to be loaded and sent to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas.

"the waste residue of the fertilizer industry in Lihe is a treasure to us. Using it to produce plasterboard, the price of raw materials can be reduced from 150 yuan to 9.9 yuan per ton. " Li Peng, office director of Taishan Gypsum Chengde Co., Ltd., said that it was precisely because of Longhua's resource advantages that the company invested 220 million yuan in 2017 to implement a new building materials project in Longhua. Build a paper plaster board production line with an annual output of 50 million square meters, plaster plaster (mortar) production line with an annual output of 100000 tons, light steel keel production line with an annual output of 10, 000 tons, and decorative plasterboard production line with an annual output of 8 million square meters. It can digest about 400000 tons of gypsum as a by-product of Lihe fertilizer industry and local power plant every year.

At present, the company has 270 kinds of products and accounts for 80% of the paper plasterboard market in Beijing.

Alpha Gypsum Company, which is also in Longhua New Building Materials Industrial Park, has started construction of an annual production line of 150000 tons, which has been put into production. As a downstream enterprise of Lihe fertilizer industry chain, the company will achieve a new breakthrough in phosphorus chemical industry through the development of fine phosphorus chemical industry and the classification of phosphoric acid such as fine phosphate, lithium iron phosphate and phosphorus series flame retardant materials.

"We will plan ahead, increase investment, and upgrade construction. Through the chain effect of" recruit one, attract a string, and bring one piece ", we will make the efforts of the whole county to create a phosphorus industrial park covering an area of 1800 mu." Wang Liguo, director of the Operation Bureau of Longhua Economic Development Zone, said that the output value of the phosphorus industrial park will reach 5 billion yuan by 2025, and a "10 billion-class park in the park" will be built by 2030, forming a new economic growth pole in Longhua.

According to reports, at present, the number of related enterprises in Longhua phosphorus and titanium industry has reached 27. From January to August this year, the operating income of phosphorus and titanium industry reached 2.58 billion yuan, an increase of 29.1 percent. Longhua phosphorus and titanium recycling industrial cluster was successfully selected into the ranks of provincial county characteristic industrial clusters.