Beijing, June 13: Chinese paper mills have succeeded in turning out high-quality and environment-friendly paper with ultra-fine ore powder, which is being used to serve as a substitute for pulp wood. South-western Yunnan province, the first region in china to experiment with the new source of material in paper-making, has turned out thousands of tonnes of paper with Wollastonite as the base material, Xinhua news agency reported.

Paper mills in western Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces and Shandong province in east china have also followed suit, it said.

With advanced grinding technology, Wollastonite could be reduced to an ultra-fine power dust to serve as pulp for making paper of all sorts ranging from ordinary writing paper to art paper.
There is no need to refit the paper-manufacturing machinery or alter techniques, a senior engineer of the institute of non-ferrous metal application in Yunnan province, Zhong Guangrong said.

General manager of the Yunnan ultra-fine new materials co. ltd., Shi Yubei estimated that the consumption of one tonne of Wollastonite would save 3.6 cubic meters of timber and discharge less waste water from paper mills accordingly.
China abounds in Wollastonite with proven reserves of nearly 370 million tonnes, ranking the second in the world after the United States.

Since the Chinese government banned timber felling on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the price of paper wood has soared, driving some paper mills into dilemma or bankruptcy. The use of Wollastonite has opened a new "window of hope" for the industry, the report said.

Bureau Report