Natural Resources

【Land Resources】Wuning County has relatively complete and well exposed stratums which have witnessed the changes of earth from Proterozoic era to Cenozoic era. Formed by a set of flysch (or flyschoid) of shallow-deep-sea facies in the mid Proterozoic, Shuangqiao Mountain Groups are the oldest mountains in this area which mainly lie in the Southern Jiuling Mountains, Northern Mufu Mountain and other high mountain areas. The Cenozoic stratums are distributed in the Xiushui River basin and reservoir areas, which are formed by red conglomerate of lake-river and incomplete slope wash facies and sediments of clay and boulder clays. The major soils in mountain areas of Wuning County are yellow soil, while in the high mountains areas are mainly granites and metamorphic rocks and in the mountain slopes are brown soils. Due to the high level of underground water, soils in intermountain basins are gleyed paddy soil. Along the banks of Xiushui River are mainly alluvial soils. According to the results of the second national land survey, the mainly land types and areas of Wuning County are listed as below. Wuning County has 31,260.55 hectares of arable land, accounting for 8.92%; 1243.37 hectares of garden plot, accounting for 0.35%; 273,725.04 hectares of woodland, accounting for 78.12%; 2966.07 hectares of grass, accounting for 0.85%; 7080.18 hectares of urban village and industrial land, accounting for 2.02%; 2338.51 hectares of traffic land, accounting for 0.67%; 28,662.1 hectares of waters and water conservancy facilities land, accounting for 8.18%; 3095.49 hectares of other kinds of land, accounting for 0.89%.

【Mineral Resources】Based on the results of geological surveys throughout the years,  more than 30 kinds of minerals are found in Wuning areas, among which are ferrous metals like iron and manganese, nonferrous metals like tungsten, antimony, vanadium, copper, tin, molybdenum, lead, zinc, mercury, etc. And the majority of nonferrous metals are lead, tungsten and mercury, then comes to copper, tin, molybdenum and poly-metallic ores. Only a few mineral spots of precious metals (like gold and silver) are found so far, and the rest are relatively abundant mineral deposits and spots of nonmetal and fuel resources, such as limestone, stone materials (slate, marble and granite), silica, china clay, clay, gypsum, barite, tourmaline, quartz, phosphate, coal, stone coal and so on.

Tungsten ores are distributed in belts and most of them are in Luoxi Village (located in the south side of Wuning), southern margin of Shimenlou Town and western Futian—the northern margin of Shangtang Village. The relatively intensive mineral deposits of tungsten ores are in Shiwei Cave of Shimenlou Town—Dahutang area. These diggings are important origins of nonferrous metals of Wuning County, and among which a small amount of associated minerals including Cu, Sn, Mo and silver are also found.

Antimony ores are mainly concentrated in the central western regions (Qingjiang, Shidu) and central eastern regions (Dongshan, Mashan) within the County.

Coal mine is one of the main mineral species that are exploited in Wuning, and mainly distributed in Quankou and Luxi Town, north eastern parts of the County. It is distributed in belts which start from Nanchong Village in Luxi Town—syncline—anticline to Quanping Village in Quankou Town, then straight into Niusi Village.

Manganese ores are mainly distributed in the intersections (Dongkou—Longshi) of Shidu Village and Qingjiang Village. The majority of manganese ores here are found in mineral spots, which have reached the standard of rich manganese for their relatively high quality.

Iron ores are mainly distributed in the east part of Wuning and areas (Guanlian, Luoping) along the north and south sides of West Lake of Mount Lushan. Located in the fracture zone and impacted by gravity sliding, the mineral deposits and spots of iron follow the east-west tectonic belt and are distributed in strings.

Vanadium is contained in the stone coal seam which occurred in the bottom of Lower Cambrian Wangyinpu formation in early Paleozoic era. The maximum thickness of coal seam is up to 2 meters or more. Within certain limits, the seam changes stably according to the directions and trends. The total stone cola resource is approximately 600 million tons, which mainly distributed in Donglin Village, Chuantan Town, Lixi Town, Futian Village, Songxi Town, Shidu Village, Qingjiang Village, Henglu Village and so on.

Marble is mainly distributed in Chuantan Town, Luxi Town, Guanlian Village, Dadong Village and so on, with an estimated reserves of more than 7 million cubic meters. Jinxiangyu (Imperial Brown), Agate Red and Black Jade are the main types of marbles produced here, among which the Jinxiangyu brand stone materials in Chuantan is the key product in Wuning and it is well favored by many merchants and has a strong competitive power in the market.

Granite  Mainly distributed in Luoxi Township, Shimenlou Town, Shangtang Township, Putian Township and so on.

Quartzite (Silica)  Mainly distributed in Jiuling mountains’ Taiping Cave of Luoxi Township, Shiwei Cave of Shimenlou Town, Jiugong montain’s Taiyang Hill of Chuantan Town, Shangtang Township, Lixi Town’s Tianqiu of Taiping Village and so on. Content of silicon dioxide of mineral is more than 98% generally, and the accumulated quantity of resource surpasses 600,000 tons.

Porcelain clay  Mainly distributed in Shimenlou Town and Luoxi Township. Present known diggings (mineral occurrence) are 34. Jinjia Hill, Bailu Hill, Fengshu Hill, Fengguan hill, Zhongcun, Shangao and so on amount to 12 places are relativly larger. The total resource (333+334) is about 4,967,700 tons, and 9 of the diggings are more than 20,000 tons.

Hot spring  There are 3 hot springs in the county. They are Shangtang Township Hot Spring, Luoxi Township Hot Spring and Songxi Town Hot Spring. The water temperature of Shangtang Township Hot Spring is between 43 to 45℃. This hot spring is divdied into 2 parts, having 8 springs. The water temperature of Luoxi Hot Spring is 65℃ with total flow of 260 stere per day, and it has 3 springs. While the one of Songxiyi Hill remainds furhther exploration.

Mineral water  There has been one drinking natural mineral water resource founded, which is located in Xianguo Hill of Luoxi Township. This mineral water is colourless, tasteless, odorless and tasted cool and sweet. Additional, it is free of season, and the flow is quite steady. Daily water yield is about 150 tons.

【Energy resources】Main energy resources are hydro-energy, luminous energy, wind energy, energy mineral resource and so on. Standing stock of hydro-energy reaches 146,600 kilowatt theoretically. This is enough to build 106 power stations whose power is more than 500 kilowatt, which accounts for 60.8% of theoretical standing stock. The main energy mineral resources include soft coal, anthracite and stone coal. The area of soft coal’s diggings is 219.99 hectare, with 33,830,000 to 43,830,000 gross reserves, and calorific value surpasses 6000 kilocalorie per kilogram. Stone coal is mainly distributed in Yangzhou, Luoping, Xinning Township, Shidu, Qingjiang, Guanlian, Jinkou, Songxi, Futian, Lixi, Chuantan, Donglin and other 12 townships. The gross reserves reach 600 million tons, with a calorific value of about 520 to 1,444 kilocalorie per kilogram. Meanwhile, luminous energy is relatively abundant here. Annual average sunshine duration is 1648.4 hours, and solar energy resources of whole county attain the amount of 48.535 million tons. Moreover, wind energy resources are quite rich here, and the southwest is the most abundant place where is under exploited. Besides, geothermal energy resources, are distributed in Shangtang and Luoxi, were founded in this county. The total heat is 184.3 kilocalorie per second.

【Biological resources】Wuning enjoys abundant wild animal resources. At present, 46 different kinds of forest wildlife are living here, including 17 species of beasts, 15 species of birds, 17 species of amphibians and reptiles. Wuning also keeps more than 6000 varieties of herbal and woody plants, including at least 200 rare species. There are identified wild plants 39 species of fruits, 113 species of wood, 19 species of bamboo, 58 species of flowers, 41 species of grass and 370 species of medicinal materials. About aquanti animal, there are 48 species of cypriniformes, 10 species of perciformes, 5 species of siluriformes, 2 species of anguilliformes, salmoniformes, and mastacembeliformes. And 1 species of beloniforme and synbranchiforme, total 73 different kinds. In terms of shrimps, Wuning has macrobrachium superbum (freshwater shrimp) and palaemonidae macrodactylus. Additional, A.W. elliptica, A.W., Corbicula fluminea and freshwater jellyfish was found in Wuning. Amphibians of Wuning include: quaspiaa spinosa, amyda sincnisis and turtle, while aquatic plants living here include lotus root, chufa, water chestnut, Jipa, potamogeton malaianus, hydrilla varticillata, water caltrop, eel grass, water lettuce, water hyacinth, duckweed and so on.