Yaozhihe Village, located at the junction of three counties (districts) of Hubei Province: Baokang, Shennongjia and Fangxian, has fresh air and clear river water. It is known far and wide as one of the "Top Ten Well-off Villages in the Country".

In 2019, the village achieved a total industrial and agricultural output value of 4.8 billion yuan, with a per capita net income of 60,000 yuan, and 100% of farmers live in small villas.

What many people did not expect is that in addition to the orchard economy and tourism, the green development of phosphate mines is also an important pillar for Yaozhihe Village to move towards a better life.

No, a super large phosphate mine was born here again.

This super-large phosphate mine comes from the Yanbianshang mining area in Baokang County and belongs to Hubei Yaozhihe Chemical Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Yaozhihe Company").

The company is a village-owned joint-stock enterprise in Yaozhihe Village. It has jurisdiction over more than ten enterprises including 6 phosphate ore production enterprises, two chemical production enterprises, and 5 hydroelectric power stations.

Today, the phosphate rock production alone has formed an annual production and sales scale of 2.5 million tons of phosphate rock and 50,000 tons of fine phosphorus chemical products, with an annual output value of 1.2 billion yuan.

Resources are the basis for mining development.

In January 2012, Yaozhihe Company obtained the general exploration rights for the Yanbian mining area for the first time through bidding, and then entrusted the Hubei Geological Exploration Institute of Sinochem Geology and Mines Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "Hubei Institute of Chemical Exploration") to carry out prospecting work here.

, providing enterprises with a backup development base.

Starting in 2012, the Hubei Institute of Chemical Exploration organized engineering and technical personnel to carry out comprehensive research and preliminary surveys. Through a summary of the mineralization rules of phosphate ore in the phosphate ore accumulation area in western Hubei and an analysis of past ore prospecting results, after communicating with the company, the weir edge was selected.

Prospecting operations were launched in the upper area, and mining area census, supplementary census and detailed survey were completed successively.

“In the Yanbian mining area, we have submitted 590 million tons of phosphorus resource reserves and an average content of phosphorus pentoxide of 23.54%. Among them, the grade I rich ore resources are 43.487 million tons with an average content of 31.80%. The control scale is 5800 meters × 2800

The thickness of a single phosphate ore body is about 12 meters, which is a typical large ore rich ore." Talking about this achievement, Tang Congshou, the chief expert of the project, was full of pride.

The rich phosphate rock resources have laid the foundation for Yaozhihe Company to carry out mine design and turn resources into actual productivity of the company as soon as possible. They have also provided resource support for Baokang County's poverty alleviation campaign.

What is even more gratifying is that this achievement was also selected as one of the "Top Ten Prospecting Achievements in 2019" by the Geological Society of China.

Tang Congshou said that this achievement has obvious dual benefits.

From the perspective of stimulating local economic and social development, the results have increased the potential for economic development in Baokang County.

The county is a key county for poverty alleviation and development in the concentrated and contiguous poverty-stricken areas of Qinba Mountain, and is close to the Shennongjia Forest Area.

Although Baokang County exited the ranks of poor counties in 2019, there is not much support for county economic development.

In addition to utilizing abundant water energy resources to develop small hydropower, phosphate rock development and phosphate chemical industry are still the most important pillars of the county's economic development.

Today, the county's phosphate mining and processing capacity has reached more than 1 million tons, and its conversion capacity has reached more than 500,000 tons.

From the perspective of ensuring food security, this achievement has enhanced my country’s short-range, low-cost phosphate fertilizer supply capacity and is conducive to increasing my country’s grain production and income.

For a long time, it is incompatible with the main grain-producing areas being concentrated in the central and eastern regions. However, my country's phosphorus resources are mainly concentrated in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other southwest regions. Phosphate fertilizers from these areas are transported to the main grain-producing areas in the central and eastern areas. In addition to increasing transportation costs, untimely transportation may even delay farming time and affect the grain output of the season.

Therefore, from the perspective of ensuring national food security, Hubei Province has long listed phosphate rock as a strategic mineral resource in the province. While increasing the integration of phosphorus resources and improving the level of intensive utilization of phosphorus resources, Yichang has also

Coordination of prospecting in the eastern and deep parts of phosphate mines.

By the end of 2019, Hubei Province had invested a total of 800 million yuan in phosphate ore prospecting through funds, enterprises and other channels, and added a total of 3.2 billion tons of phosphorus resource reserves, making the phosphorus resource reserves the first in the country and ensuring the "central part of my country's grain production". Phosphate fertilizer requirements for “granaries”.

In the eyes of Yaozhihe villagers, this super-large phosphate mine means huge income; in the eyes of geologists, this achievement reflects the power of technological innovation.

Tang Congshou said that phosphate rock resources in Hubei Province are mainly concentrated in western Hubei, controlled by Huangling anticline and Shennongjia anticline. The phosphate rock layers in western Hubei are hidden deposits, most of which are buried to a depth of 1,000 meters, with the deepest reaching 1,700 meters.

The surface is also covered by deep dense forests.

In the context of extremely difficult prospecting, from 2011 to the end of 2019, the Hubei Chemical Exploration Institute has surveyed and reviewed 2.3 billion tons of phosphate ore in western Hubei. One of the important experiences is to adhere to the whole process of prospecting.

Geological science and technology innovation.

——Carry out innovation in geological mineralization theory to provide guidance for breakthroughs in mineral prospecting.

Guided by the theory of mineralization controlled by ancient structures, technicians from Hubei Chemical Exploration Institute summarized the mineralization rules and distribution characteristics of Yichang phosphate deposits through comprehensive research on the prospecting results in the exploration area: Phosphate deposits were mainly formed in the Liantuo period uplift.

The Doushantuo period subsidence area developed on the basis of the belt is distributed in the east-west and northwest-trending structural belts and the combined arc-shaped structural belt or the northwest-trending structural belt in the southern part of the combined arc-shaped structural belt; phosphate rocks are mostly developed in water

The lower uplift zone is mostly gathered on the north side of a certain arc-shaped fault or a northwest-trending fault.