In autumn 1958, the Qilian Mountain geological team of the Gansu Geological Prospecting Bureau found a piece of green malachite in Longshou Mountain of Jinchuan town. Upon testing, they found that the malachite contained 0.9% nickel and 16.05% copper, which made it an exciting discovery for the nation.
At that time, China had no nickel resources, and as a kind of strategic resource, the lack of nickel hindered the development of China's national defense industry. However, the discovery of this stone filled this gap in the development of China's steel industry, resulting in Jinchuan becoming instrumental in the development of nickel and cobalt in the nation. Since then, China no longer depended on nickel imports, and its own defense technology began to develop rapidly.
Facing the technological blockade and resource embargo of western countries, the government organized for the national scientific and technological forces to carry out large-scale joint research. In 1964, Jinchuan produced the first batch of electrolytic nickel; in 1983, the electrolytic nickel of Jinchuan Group's brand, "Golden Camel", was officially registered, marking the Jinchuan Group gaining competitiveness in the overseas markets; in 1995, the No. 1 electrolytic nickel of this brand was successfully registered on the London Metal Exchange.
A picture of Jinchuan in the past [Photo provided to en.jnmc.com]
The history of discovery, exploration, design, construction and development of the Jinchuan nickel mine is a triumph of self-reliance and hard work. Jinchuan is located next to the Tengger Desert, which had no water, no roads, no electricity, no trees, and no residents. When the mining commenced, it was a three-year period of difficulty for China's economy. The difficulties of the first group of builders can only be imagined.
The builders of Jinchuan [Photo provided to en.jnmc.com]
The brand of "Golden Camel" has not stopped moving forward after pushing through all the trials it faced. It has also taken solid steps to open up the path of scientific and technological innovation.
Since 2000, with the substantial expansion of China's stainless steel, hydrogen battery and electricity industries, the global research and development of new energy vehicles, especially hybrid electric vehicles, and the demand for nickel in the new battery industry have attracted great attention. Based on this demand, Jinchuan Group took up the challenge and concentrated its scientific and technological forces on the research and development of Carbonyl nickel. In 2018, Jinchuan Group completed the first domestic industrial production line of Carbonyl nickel pellets, becoming the third enterprise capable of producing Carbonyl nickel pellets in the world, and broke the foreign monopoly.
Carbonyl nickel pellets of Jinchuan Group [Photo provided to en.jnmc.com]
In recent years, Jinchuan has focused on the scientific and technological frontier of the comprehensive utilization of nickel and cobalt resources and the demand of national industrial development for materials. The staff have carried out comprehensive scientific and technological research, and formed a large number of core technologies with independent intellectual property rights, which have reached the world's advanced level. Jinchuan has become one of the few enterprises in the world to realize the simultaneous extraction of various valuable metals in the same factory.
Through 60 years of hard work, generations of builders of Jinchuan Group have built China's nickel and cobalt industrial base with their wisdom. At present, the nickel-cobalt material of the brand "Golden Camel" plays an important role in contributing to the Shenzhou spaceship, realizing the century-old dream of Jinchuan staff.
The story of "Golden Camel" has accompanied three generations of people in Jinchuan, who have been writing the bright future of Jinchuan Group.
Jinchuan Group at present [Photo provided to en.jnmc.com]
