Page 2 of 2 Railway transforms Tibetan
trade By Daniel Allen
10% of mining
companies had officially approved resource
assessments, and only 15% of mines in commercial
operation had completed full surveys. However, the
lower cost of train travel has now turned the
quiet trickle of prospectors and miners arriving
in Tibet into a full-scale stampede.
The
new overland route between Lhasa and Golmud,
Qinghai province, has slashed mass transport costs
by more than a third. This has made the export of
Tibetan raw materials, once
effected
by
truck over high mountain roads, potentially
affordable. "The railway has made transport of
large quantities of metallic ores and other
mineral products out of the region an economic
reality," said a mining lawyer who asked to remain
anonymous. "Now they can actually access these
places and remove whatever's extracted."
The China Tibet Information website
reported recently that over the past eight years
more than 1,000 researchers have been scouring the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, looking for mineral
deposits to feed China's burgeoning economy. To
date, 16 major new deposits of copper, iron, lead,
zinc and other minerals worth an estimated $128
billion have apparently been located in only 50%
of Tibetan territory.
If confirmed, the
new reserves make Tibet one of the richest regions
in China. This could drastically decrease the
country's reliance on imports of copper and iron,
affecting international commodity markets across
the globe. Tibet is now estimated to contain as
much as 40 million tons of copper - one-third of
China's total reserve - 40 million tons of lead
and zinc, and more than a billion tons of
high-grade iron.
"Just going by the
reports I've seen and accepting them at face
value, the size of these finds is enormous," Alan
Heap, Citigroup's managing director for global
commodity analysis, commented recently. "For
copper, zinc and lead these reserves would double
the size of Chinese deposits."
For the
Chinese government, the mineral finds come at a
hugely critical time. Over the past several years
legions of Chinese businesses have been engaged in
a global mission to acquire the raw materials
needed to feed an increasingly voracious Chinese
economy. "Lack of resources has caused a
bottleneck," admitted Meng Xianlai, director of
the China Geological Survey.
China is
currently the world's largest importer of iron ore
- 326 million tons last year - much of which ends
up in the 24-hour steel mills that drive the
country's construction and auto industries. Partly
as a result of China's insatiable demand, prices
of high-grade iron ore have more than tripled in
the past two years, driving up development costs
worldwide.
Among the Tibetan discoveries
is China's first sizable iron deposit, a seam
called Nyixung. It is estimated to contain as much
as 500 million tons, which would be enough to put
20% of Chinese iron importers out of business this
year alone. Estimated reserves of 760 million tons
of high-grade iron ore have also been found in the
Kunlun Mountains on the western Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau and in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region.
Commenting on the new reserves,
China Geological Survey's vice director, Zhang
Hongtao, said, "They may relieve the country's
three-decade-long dependency on iron imports. Once
Tibetan mines are developed, they will greatly
relieve the strain on China's existing resources."
Newly discovered Tibetan copper reserves
are equally important. A 400km seam has been
mapped along the environmentally sensitive Yarlung
Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) Gorge. According to Xinhua,
one mine along this seam, the Yulong mine, is
estimated to hold as much as 18 million tons, and
could soon become the largest copper mine in
China. Easier access to Yulong and other mines
along the Yarlung Tsangpo seam will be provided by
the proposed extension of the railway from Lhasa
to Shigatse.
In all, three new Tibetan
finds have increased China's total copper reserves
by a third, according to the international mining
industry website Mineweb. Once production comes
online they will decrease imports by the same
amount. China, which until now has imported much
of its copper from Chile, is estimated to hold
5.6% of the world's copper, and is the
seventh-largest producer.
Metals are not
the only natural resources that Tibet has locked
away beneath the ground. According to Zhang
Hongtao, there may be "super-large" crude-oil and
gas reserves in Tibet's far-western Qiangtang
Basin, as well as large oil-shale deposits in
areas west of the existing train line. China has
invited multinational oil giants such as BP and
Shell to explore for oil and gas in Tibet after
realizing that its own companies lacked the
experience and expertise required to drill in
areas renowned for their challenging geology.
Daniel Allen is a freelance
writer and photographer from London who has lived
in China for the past three years. This article
was written after his recent trip to Tibet.
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