Southwest China's Yunnan province is enthusiastically cooperating with foreign investors in prospecting and opening up mineral resources both in Yunnan and abroad.
Scores of investors from the United States, Japan, Britain and Canada have come to Yunnan for field investigations or negotiations since the province allowed overseas investors carry out risk geological prospecting.
To date, 50 international mining companies have registered for risk prospecting in Yunnan covering a total area of 4,000 square kilometers. Substantial results have been made in opening a nickel mine at Ailao Mountain and a silver mine in western Yunnan.
The provincial geological and mining departments have also signed an agreement with Laos to exploit a potassium mine in the Vientiane Basin, the largest exploration contract China has ever undertaken abroad.
Twelve sylvite-bearing zones, ranging from 50 to 300 square kilometers in area, have been confirmed. Workers have dug eight wells from 10 to 100 meters deep. A Chinese geologist estimated the basin has probable sylvite reserves of 10 billion tons.
Yunnan will build a plant with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons of potassium chloride in the near future. Its designed maximum output is 1 million tons
(China Daily November 6, 2002)
