Luobei County in Heilongjiang Province's Hegang City has been officially designated as "China's Graphite City" by the China Mining Association during the Green Mine Wanli Tour (Hegang Station) and Strategic Emerging Industries Development Conference.
The county holds significant strategic importance in China's graphite industry, with graphite resource reserves and crystalline graphite production accounting for nearly half of the national total. Notably, it houses the world's largest single crystalline graphite mining area - the Yunshan Graphite Mine.
According to Cheng Liwei, Party Secretary and President of the China Mining Association, Luobei County's designation stems not only from its abundant natural resources but also from its successful industrial transformation. The entry of leading enterprises such as China Minmetals Group has further accelerated the conversion of local resource advantages into industrial strengths.
Li Weifeng, Deputy Party Secretary and County Mayor of Luobei, stated that the county will leverage this designation as an opportunity to implement the "graphite extension" project, working with industry leaders including China Minmetals and CHINA GRAPHITE to extend the industrial chain toward high-end applications.
A significant milestone was reached during the conference when the National Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Prediction signed an agreement with China Minmetals' National Strategic Rare Metal Mineral Efficient Development Technology Innovation Center to establish a joint technology research and development center. This partnership marks Hegang's graphite industry entering a new phase of deep integration between research, development, and application.
Cheng Qiuming, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at China University of Geosciences (Beijing), emphasized that the joint research center represents an important step in university-enterprise cooperation, breaking down barriers between theoretical research and industrial applications.
Wang Jionghui, Chief Technology Expert at China Minmetals, revealed that the team has successfully developed multiple high-end graphite products spanning from laboratory research to pilot-scale production and continuous manufacturing. The company plans to increase equipment investment and expects to achieve full-chain domestic production from raw materials to end products in the near term.
As one of China's most important crystalline graphite industrial bases, Hegang possesses graphite ore resources totaling 22.89 billion tons, providing a solid foundation for industry development. In recent years, the city has positioned the graphite new materials industry as a core driver for urban transformation and new productive forces cultivation.
Through deepened cooperation with China Minmetals, Hegang has established a "1+N" graphite new materials industrial development system. This framework centers on natural graphite resources while extending into new energy materials, nuclear-grade graphite, and graphene applications, forming an integrated cluster of "resources + capacity + technology + new materials."
The city has completed construction of the world's largest single-deposit graphite mine in terms of both reserves and production scale, with an annual capacity of 6 million tons of green and intelligent graphite mining. It has also built Heilongjiang's leading graphite purification and processing center.
The product portfolio has expanded from graphite concentrate and spherical graphite to high-value-added products including high-purity graphite, anode materials, graphene powder, and graphene lubricants, establishing the region as a graphite new materials production base with significant market influence.
Xuan Xianda, Deputy Director of Hegang's Industry and Information Technology Bureau, announced plans to focus on industrial and supply chain security, actively promoting the second phase of China Minmetals' 12-million-ton annual green and intelligent graphite mining project.
Gao Jian, Deputy Mayor of Hegang, emphasized the city's commitment to protective development combined with full-chain advancement. "Based on our resource endowments, we will create a strong magnetic field for industry development with graphite new energy materials as the main focus, featuring high-end leadership and industrial clustering," he stated.
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