January 5-7, “Research of Scientific Issues Related to Mineral Resources and the Evolution of Ecological Environment”, the “973” Pre-research Pproject, presided by Fengqing Han, researcher of ISL, got acceptance by the expert group. More than 30 researchers including Fengqing Han, the project leader, project participants and some postgraduates attended the meeting.

The project was officially founded in 2012, aimed at studying the mineralization and utilization of mineral resources in the western China and getting a system research on the evolution of ecological environment. It converged a number of first-class research teams, including Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, China Three Gorges University, Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, Guizhou Normal University, Tarim University, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Southwest Forestry University, Wenzhou University.

After two years’ hard work of all research teams, a number of outstanding scientific innovations have been made, promoting the building of 13 national and provincial laboratories. They have published 128 scientific papers of Core Journal and above, 68 papers of SCI and EI, 3 monographs, 5 issued patents, 6 patent applications, rewarded twice by Hubei Province and the Ministry of Education, trained 45 postgraduates and doctors. Through the implementation of this project, they discovered a large chloride-type salt lake deposits, providing a scientific basis for the exploration of mineral resources in the western China.