Mercury is the only liquid metal at room temperature, also known as mercury. Due to its specific physical and chemical properties, mercury is widely used in chemical, electrical, instrumentation and military industries. In addition, mercury is also used as a coolant and anti-atomic radiation material for nuclear reactors, and is also used to extract non-ferrous metals, which plays a very important role in production. The following is a small series to lead you to understand the characteristics of mercury mining and its prospecting signs.

Resource distribution of mercury

1、global distribution

Mercury is rarely distributed in nature, is considered to be a rare metal, rarely exists in a pure metal state, mostly in the form of compounds, the main common mercury-containing minerals are cinnabar (HgS), chloro-sulfurous mercury ore, sulfur-antimonous mercury ore and some other minerals connected with cinnabar. According to the useful mineral components, mercury ores can be divided into mono-mercury, mercury-uranium, mercury-antimony, mercury-selenium, mercury-gold and mercury-polymetallic types. At present, single-mercury ores are mainly used in industry. According to ore-bearing rocks, mercury ore can be divided into carbonate type, clastic rock type and volcanic rock type.

The world's mercury deposits are mainly distributed in the Tethis-Himalayan tectonic belt. The main type of deposit is carbonate type, accounting for 90% of the reserves of mercury deposit, followed by clastic rock type and magmatic rock type.

Among the world's ultra-large mercury mines, there are mainly: Almaden mercury mine in Spain, Idria mercury mine in Italy, Jingke mercury mine in Kyrgyzstan, Haidargan (Haidarkan).

2、Domestic distribution

At present, the reserves of mercury mines in China are more than 81,400 tons, ranking third in the world. Our country is rich in mercury mineral resources, there are 103 proven reserves of mining areas, mainly distributed in 12 provinces.

In terms of mercury resources reserves, the southwest region accounts for 56.9% of the country's mercury reserves, followed by the northwest region accounts for 28.4%, the South Central region accounts for 14.4%, and other regions are very small, accounting for only 0.3%. In terms of provinces and regions, Guizhou has the largest reserves, accounting for 38% of the country's mercury reserves, followed by Shaanxi with 20%, Sichuan with 16%, Guangdong with 6%, Hunan with 6%, Qinghai with 4%, Gansu with 4% and Yunnan with 3%. The total reserves of the above 8 provinces and regions account for 97% of the country's mercury reserves, of which the top 3 Guizhou, Shaanxi and Sichuan, the three provinces account for 74%.

China's famous mercury mines are Guizhou Wanshan mercury mine, Wuchuan mercury mine, Danzhai mercury mine, Tongren mercury mine and Hunan Xinhuang Mercury mine. The main mercury ore in China is carbonate rock type (accounting for more than 90%), and the super large mercury ore in Wanshan, Guizhou Province belongs to this type. It is followed by clastic rock type. Most of the known mercury deposits in China are located in the middle and lower Cambrian strata (accounting for more than 80% of the reserves), far from the magmatic activity area. Mercury deposits were also formed in the Precambrian, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, but they were not important.

Prospecting mark of mercury mine

1、The distribution area of platform-type carbonate strata away from magmatic activity, such as the border zone of Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan;

2、Cenozoic volcanic and geothermal activity area;

3、The axis of the anticline (polyanticline) and its two wings, especially the anticlinal axial fault zone;

4、The most closely related to mercury mineralization is low temperature alteration, which mainly includes silicitization, dolomitization, calcite, and barytization.

5、Low temperature mineralized areas such as realgar, pistillation and stibnite mineralization;

6、Abnormal areas of arsenic, antimony and mercury;

7、Mercury meter anomaly area.