Investigation and resources potential evaluation of lithium content in principal mining seams of Henan Province

In order to investigate the lithium content in No. B1 seam of the principal mining seams in Henan Province and to make an evaluation on the lithium resources potential in the seams, the full seam samples from the carved slots were made in the coal mining faces of the main production mines in 11 principal coalfields of Henan Province. An ICP-MS testing method was applied to the chemical experiments and analysis on the lithium content of the 187 coal samples. According to the chemical experiment results, an average content of the lithium element in each coalfield of Henan Province was calculated. The statistic method was applied to have the variance coefficient of the lithium content in each coalfield of Henan Province. The study results showed that the average value of the lithium content in No. B1 seam of Henan Province was 62.73 mg/kg. The difference of the lithium content in each coalfield was high. The lithium content of Shaanmian Coalfield was 114.19 mg/kg in highest. The lithium content of Yongxia Coalfield was lowest and was only 16.79 mg/kg. The lithium content of Shaanmian Coalfield was 6.7 times higher than Yongxia Coalfield. The lithium content of the seams in Henan Province has the features with the high lithium content in the west and the low lithium content in the east and the lowest lithium content with a relative higher variance coefficient. The delineated Guanyintang Mine in Shaanmian Coalfield, Dujia Zhanggou Area and Xin’an Mine of Xin’an Coalfield would be the areas with comprehensive utilization prospects.