New Entry Threshold Requirements for Fluorite Industry     

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other six ministries jointly issued the entry standards for the fluorite industry on March 19th. The standards identify the requirements on site selection, production scale and the comprehensive use of resources, as well as the construction of new and extension projects. Existing companies are required to meet these standards by July 1st, 2010, through technology upgrades, management improvement and resource integration.
   Under the standards, China will strictly restrict construction of new mines in those restricted areas under central and local governments' requirements. China will also ban new mines in areas where mining is prohibited. For those mines already in operation will be treated in accordance with mining and resources planning and relevant rules. Meanwhile, the standards gave detailed ruling on the location of new fluorite processing plants.
   The standards require that the daily capacity of a single line for fluorite ore dressing should exceed 100 tons. And companies with mining capacity of over 30 000 t/a should have their own dressing plants. New fluorite ore dressing plants and extension projects must have their own mines, mining tailing wasteland areas and waste treatment facilities. Fluorite companies' underground mining recovery rate must reach 75% and that of open-pit mining should reach 90%, while the recovery rate for dressing should be above 80% (excluding associated mines and mine tailings). Companies should have their own comprehensive utilization and treatment plans for mine tailings. After the metallurgical grade lump ore is selected, the remaining fluorite ore should be sent to dressing plants for further separation so that the resource utilization is increased.