Progress of two fluorochemical projects of Kings Resources

    Summary: Two fluorochemical projects of Kings Resources have been under smooth construction and they are expected to be completed and put into production in H2 2023.   

    On 8 June, 2023, China Kings Resources Group Co., Ltd. (Kings Resources) announced that the "beneficiation and fluorochemical integration project" of Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Kings Beneficiation Co., Ltd. (Baotou Steel Kings) has been carried out steadily and it produced around 110,000 tonnes of fluorite powder in 2022 and the output is estimated to reach 400,000–500,000 tonnes in 2023; the fluorochemical project (phase I and phase II) of Inner Mongolia Jinebo Florochemical Co., Ltd. (Jinebo Florochemical) has also been under stable construction and is anticipated to be finished in H2 2023.   

    Baotou Steel Kings' project of fluorite recovery from tailings   

    The company completed the "150 t/a rare earth tailing and fluorite comprehensive recovery and technical renovation project" in July 2022 and so far this project has maintained operation at full load, with all indicators meeting expectation. The "2.60 million t/a rare earth tailing and iron tailing fluorite recovery project" finished installation in Nov. 2022 and entered commissioning stage smoothly in Feb. 2023. These two production lines have produced around 150,000 tonnes of fluorite powder so far this year. The 1.00 million t/a iron tailing fluorite recovery project is still under equipment installation stage and is forecast to start trial production in Aug. 2023. The "beneficiation and fluorochemical integration project" encompasses two technical innovations: in terms of beneficiation, the basic principle of extracting fluorite from rare earth tailings and iron tailings is "intense dispersion–interface regulation–efficient separation", which can be applied to the comprehensive utilisation of other intractable mineral resources; with respect to deep processing, the plant-wide production process of hydrofluoric acid using low-grade fluoride powder has been developed.   

    Jinebo Florochemical's fluorochemical project   

    This project is located in Damao Barun Industrial Park, Darhan Muminggan Joint Banner, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Divided into two phases, it will build capacity of 360,000 t/a anhydrous aluminium fluoride and 180,000 t/a anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (AHF). Specifically, the first phase includes 90,000 t/a anhydrous aluminium fluoride and the civil engineering construction of the main part of the project and equipment installation of part of this project have been finished; the second phase contains 270,000 t/a anhydrous aluminium fluoride and 180,000 t/a AHF and it is predicted to be completed and put into production in Q4 2023. This project is planned to produce around 70,000 tonnes of hydrofluoric acid in 2023 and the capacity will be gradually released according to market situation.