Latest news with #TarimBasin


South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
No more Achilles' heel in hypersonics race? China zirconium find boosts reserve five-fold
In a discovery that could reshape the global balance of strategic mineral supply , Chinese geologists have uncovered a huge zirconium deposit in the Kubai Basin, on the northern fringe of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang – a deadly stretch of arid land that may now become a new driver of China 's hi-tech military ambitions. The newly identified deposit, embedded within Cenozoic continental sedimentary layers dating to the Paleogene and Neogene periods, represents the first super-large zirconium resource ever discovered in a terrestrial, non-marine basin in China. Unlike traditional zirconium sources – typically found along coastlines or within hard-rock igneous systems – this deposit formed through ancient river and lake systems that transported zircon grains over hundreds of kilometres from alkaline rock sources in the region, depositing them in deltaic and lacustrine environments The ore, hosted in loose to semi-consolidated gravelly medium-coarse sandstones, contains an estimated 2 million tonnes of zirconium dioxide, according to preliminary assessments. It is four times the total reserve of China at present. Zirconium alloys, prized for their exceptional resistance to heat, corrosion and neutron absorption, are fundamental in manufacturing scramjet combustion chambers, thermal protection tiles, nose cones and guidance components.


Emirates 24/7
21-07-2025
- Business
- Emirates 24/7
China discovers world's deepest sandstone-type industrial uranium mineralisation
China has discovered the world's deepest sandstone-type industrial uranium mineralisation at a depth of 1,820 metres in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA). This discovery sets a new global record for the deepest sandstone-type industrial uranium mineralisation ever found, according to People's Daily Online. Uranium exploration aims to locate and identify uranium deposits of industrial value, assessing their resource potential and development prospects. Industrial uranium mineralisation serves as a direct and reliable indicator for discovering industrial uranium deposits. The mineralisation discovered this time represents China's first finding of thick industrial uranium mineralisation within the reddish, variegated strata of a previously unexplored area in the heart of the desert within the Tarim Basin. It fills a gap in mineral prospecting within China's largest desert-covered region. The discovery plays an exemplary and leading role in sandstone uranium exploration and will significantly enhance China's capability and expertise in uranium resource exploration in desert regions, said the CAEA. Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.


South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China tames ‘sea of death' with high-voltage renewable energy power loop
Chinese construction crews have completed encircling the Tarim Basin – one of the most forbidding places on Earth – with an extra-high voltage 'energy ring'. The project, which has taken 15 years to build, transforms the vast inland basin – home to China's largest desert – into a massive new-energy transmission hub. The 4,197km (2,608-mile) power transmission and transformation project in an area of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region known as the 'sea of death' was completed on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The final section of the 750-kilovolt loop – now the largest power grid loop in China – was completed at the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert and is expected to go online in November, marking a major infrastructure milestone for south Xinjiang. The infrastructure includes nearly 10,000 transmission towers along with nine substations that will collect wind, solar, thermal and hydropower, transforming the voltage before sending the electricity back out for consumption, according to state news agency Xinhua. The extended power grid covers an area of 1.06 million sq km (409,268 square miles) and five prefectures in Xinjiang. According to Xinhua, most of the construction was completed along the Taklamakan Desert, which accounts for around 60 per cent of the Tarim Basin's total area.