The first stage of what will be the world's largest potash fertilizer production facility started production on December 18, 2008 in the Lop Nur area of Xinjiang in northwest China.

A vessel sails across a salt pan in Lop Nur. [Xinhua]

Announcing the launch, the State Development and Investment Corporation (SDIC) said construction of the second stage of the project, scheduled to take four years, was also kicked off yesterday.

By 2012, the Lop Nur area will be the world's biggest potash fertilizer production site with an annual output of 3 million tons.

Lop Nur, on the eastern edge of China's desert Tarim Basin, in southeast Xinjiang, was once the site of a huge salt lake. By 1972 the lake had dried up completely and the remaining salt deposits, covering a 10,350 square kilometer area – 115 kilometers long and 90 kilometers wide, are the largest source of potassium so far located in China.