Geologists have discovered huge sylvite reserves in Lop Nur, a desert known as the "sea of death" in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Lop Nur, on the eastern edge of the Tarim basin, in southeast Xinjiang, used to be a huge lake of over 10,000 square kilometers. It dried up in 1972.

The proven reserves of sylvite are said to be 240 million tons and the region has prospective reserves of 504 million tons.

The proven sylvite deposit, 60.5 kilometers from north to south and 32.5 kilometers from east to west, covers an area of 1,710.5 square kilometers.

Development of sylvite resources in the Lop Nur area is progressing smoothly.

A sylvite plant, in trial operation, has produced about 1,000 tons of high quality potassium sulfate. The plant expects to produce 5,000 tons by the end of this year.

Construction of a sylvite field, covering 21.6 square kilometers, and related facilities have been completed. Costing 47.19 million yuan (US$5.7 million), the field is expected to go into operation very soon.

A plan to build a potash fertilizer base, to process the sylvite, with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons has been submitted to the State Development and Reform Commission for approval. The cost of the project is estimated at 3.26 billion yuan (US$394 million).