On August 24 and 25, 2009, Prof. Masatake Haruta of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, a pioneer of Au catalysis, visited Yantai by the invitation of Yantai University. Yantai is recognized as the hometown of gold in China. He delivered a one-hour talk “Preparation of Au Catalysts” at a workshop on Au catalysts and their industrial applications. Professor Caixia Qi at the Institute of Applied Catalysis of Yantai University organized the workshop and her group is now engaged in an AuTek project (Improvement in Long-term Durability of Gold Catalyst for Application Air Purification) that is financially supported by the World Gold Council for the first time in mainland China. The Institute’s gold catalyst (YD-2) applied in the mini-type mine self-rescuer, has been manufactured by Shanxi Ruishi Protective Technology Co. Ltd, Shanxi province, China. More than 20 researchers and students attended the workshop, from other domestic research centers, such as Shangdong University, Kuming Precious Metal Research Institute, Dalian University of Technology, Qingdao University, East-china University of Science & Technology and Yantai Gold Administrative Bureau.
With the arrangement of Yantai Gold Administrative Bureau, gold scientists then visited two companies at Zhaoyuan city, which is known as “the capital of gold” in China. One is the Zhaojin Mining Industry Company Limited (Jingchiling gold mine) which is the biggest gold-silver mining company (http://www.zhaojin.com.cn) in China, mainly engaged in the exploration, mining, ore processing, cyanidation, smelting and sale of gold products and other metallic products. This company has been successfully listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2006 (stock code 1818). The picture was taken in front of the main official building of the mine. Another company is the Heraeus Zhaoyuan Precious Metal Materials Co. Ltd (http://www.heraeus.com.cn), the biggest bonding wires manufacturer in China. It is a Sino-German joint venture incorporated by Heraeus Holding and Shandong Luxin Precious Metal Group Company. Their market share of gold bonding wires and gold salts in China is > 60% and the customers occupying ratio is > 90%.
Statistics from China Gold Association showed that gold output in China in 2007 was 270.49 tons which exceeded South Africa and turned China to the top one in gold output worldwide for the first time. In 2008, gold output in China exceeded 282 tons and would approach 300 tons in 2009. One would expect that China will become the biggest country in gold consumption this year. Yantai area is located at the Shandong Peninsula in the east of China. It is a famous hometown of gold and the biggest base for production, mining and processing of gold, ranking the first in output and reserves of gold in China.
As “the capital of gold” in China, Zhaoyuan is a subordinate city located at the north-west of Yantai. It is the No. 1 city in China to produce gold with a long history in gold mining. It has more than 2000 gold mineral ores with one-sixth of gold reserves and one-tenth of gold output in China. At present, Zhaoyuan city has 66 gold mines, 90 refineries and more than 70 enterprises for gold exploration, smelting, gold machinery and gold jewelry processing. In recent years, an industry chain of gold has been gradually forming in a comprehensive system including gold production, gold-silver products, gold exchange, gold machinery, gold chemical engineering, gold travel and gold research.
Zhaoyuan has been widely communicating and collaborating domestically and internationally, not only with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Gold Exchange, and China Gold Association as well as other Chinese research centers and universities, but also with related organizations in Russia, Korean, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and so on. The brand of “gold” is applied in anywhere at Zhaoyuan and most of companies, factories, mountains, roads, rivers, restaurants, schools, hotels, travel agencies and shops are named by gold. On Aug. 27-30 this year, the 3rd gold festival was held at Zhaoyuan with exhibitions from more than ten famous-brand Chinese and international enterprises. Prof. Haruta comments “there is nowhere in the world other than Zhaoyuan that has everything related to gold. This may be the best place for the international gold conference.”
Because of the tight schedule of Prof. Haruta, the participants could not visit Gold Mining Museum, which is located in the waste plant of Luoshan Gold Mine and covers an area of about 10,000 m2 with total investment of RMB 263 million Yuan. The museum consists of gold museum, real scene exhibition area, mine experiencing area and gold rush town.