盐湖资源开发利用进展

本世纪头十年里,国际上再度掀起盐湖资源开发热潮。这很大程度上是由于锂的开发热带动的,同时也是和钾肥的广泛施用、价格一路走高有关。南美安第斯高原地区盐湖蕴藏世界70%以上的锂资源,且卤水锂、钾、硼浓度高。该地区极度干旱,少雨多风,非常适合采用卤水盐田蒸发的节能浓缩工艺技术。老的盐湖开发企业则在钾肥需求的带动下,稳步发展。在我国,新疆罗布泊和青海柴达木盆地盐湖则钾锂镁硼产品多元化,经营多元化取得长足进步。本文对近十年来,国内外盐湖开发的新动向做了概括介绍,特别着重于南美"锂三角"地区这一新的生长点。

Recent Development on Comprehensive Utilization of Salt Lake Resources

Salt lakes are usually refered to the most concentrated natural waters with salt content more than 50 g·L-1.Salt lakes contain abundant mineral resources such as potassium,lithium,boron,and sodium,magnesium etc.,thus are considered as store house of mineral salts.Dead Sea in the Middle East,Great Salt Lake,USA,are the most famous in the world for comprehensive utilization of their mineral resources.Development and exploitation of salt lakes are becoming a hot trend again in the last decade.It can be mainly contributed to the "lithium fever".Rising prices of potassium fertilizers also stimulate the old enterprises of exploitating salt lakes to increase their output.Salt lakes on the central Andes Mountains are hold more than 70% of world lithium reserves in store,and a great quantity of potassium,boron,magneium etc.In addition to high concentration of the above elements in brines,extreme dryness of the climate in the area is the most favourable to uses of solar pond for evaporation and concentration of brines.Trends and progress in comprehensive utilization of salt lake resources are reviewed in the present paper.Main progress in this field of China is also involved.