• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.291-300
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• 2013

The potential mineral resources in North Korea are magnesite, limestone, coal, graphite, iron, gold, silver, lead, and zinc. North Korea is mainly exporting coal and iron to China(70%) and EU countries. Gold ore reserves(or resources) in North Korea are about 2,000 tons and annual production is 2 tons based on metal. Major gold mines are Sooan, Holdong, and Daeyoodong mines and six smelters are operating. Fe ore reserves (or resources) are 4.3 billion tons and annual production is about 5 million tons based on 63.5% Fe. Major iron mines are Moosan, Leewon, Eunryul, Shinwon, and Jaeryong and 7 smelters are operating. Pb and Zn ore reserves(or resources) are Pb 470,000 tons and Zn 15 million tons, and annual productions are about Pb 26,000 tons and Zn 50,000 tons based on metal respectively. Major Pb-Zn mines are Gumdock and Seongcheon mines. Magnesite ore reserves(or resources) are 2.8 billion tons (95% MgO) and annual production is about 150,000 tons. Major magnesite mines are Ryongyang, Daeheung Youth and Ssangryong mines, and 5 magnesium refractory factories are operating. Apatite ore reserves(or resources) are 340 million tons(30% $P_2O_5$) and annual production is about 300,000 tons(crude ore). Major apatite mines are Daedaeri, Dongam and Poongnyen mines. Coal is established as an important strategic fuel mineral resources and is a major energy source in North Korea. Coal ore reserves(or resources) are 18.6 billion tons and annual production is about 20 million tons. The main coal fields is located in southern Pyongan and the Jigdong mine is the biggest in North Korea.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.391-400
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• 2015

Korea is a global steel producer and a major consumer while iron ore producing is very low compared to the demand. On the other hand, North Korea holds tremendous amount of iron reserves and, however, its producing rate is limited. Moreover, the data regarding mineral resources of North Korea is very limited and uncertain because of political isolation. This study estimated the amount of iron ore resource and production amount for the Musan Iron mine, the world-known open-pit mine of North Korea, using satellite imagery(Landsat MSS, ASTER) and digital maps between 1976 to 2007. As a result, the mining area of Musan mine was increased by $6.1km^2$ during the 30 years and the mining sector was estimated as $4.9km^2$. We estimated the iron resources and production amount of 0.7 and 0.2 billion metric tons, respectively based on 3D modeling and average iron ore density of Anshan formation in China. This amount indicates 8.1 million tons of annual average production and it coincides well with previous reports. We expect this study would be utilized significantly on inter-Korean exchange programs by providing trustable preliminary data.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.12-15
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• 2003

Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources(KIGAM) is operating Wonju Korea Seismic Research Station(KSRS), 29 regional seismic research stations and 5 Korea-China joint seismic stations in China. Also KIGAM is operating Korea Earthquake Monitoring System (KEMS) to archive the real-time data stream and to determine event parameters (epicenter, origin time, and magnitude) by the automatic processing and analyst review. To do this, KEMS used KIGAM's regional seismic network and other institute's network in a near real-time base. From Dec. 1, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2002, 3,827 seismic events were analyzed in a automatic processing procedure and finally 3,437 events were analyzed by analyst and archived. But problem is this event catalog includes not only natural earthquake, but also artificial events produced by the blast. More than 80 % events were concentrated in daytime and many events were concentrated in the confirmed blast sites, Pyeongyang, Pocheon, Yeongjong-do, Donghae city, etc. Because these artificial events are a major potential cause of error when estimating the seismicity of a specific region, discrimination procedure has to be developed in the first place.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.271-289
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• 2011

Mongolia as a land-locked country, has tried to diversify its foreign trade with European and Asian countries. Recently continual price rise of mineral resources also helps Mongolia have chances to gain her trading partners. Nevertheless, regulations and barriers to exports of Mongolian mineral resources in China and Russia, which are transit countries, are complex and complicated in border crossing and transshipment procedures for transit transport. This paper discusses problems and barriers to economic and efficient logistics systems and transit transport of Mongolian mineral resources, and addresses a proposal of international intermodal transport corridors for improving transit transport, and suggests international cooperation, by applying transit rights of land-locked country. Specifically, it is necessary for Mongolia to search for other international intermodal corridors besides the corridor through the port of Tianjin. It is needed to build an international organization for discussion of affirmation of logistics equipments and improvement of transit procedure in border crossing, and to raise financial feasibility in building a new intermodal corridor.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2020

Objective: Minerals are one of the important nutrients for supporting the growth of sheep grazing in the highland, northwest of China. The experiment was conducted to investigate the relationship of both macro and micro minerals in sheep grazing in the highlands of six districts located in the Qilian Mountain of China. Methods: Samples of herbage (n = 240) and soil (n = 240) were collected at random in a "W" shape across the area designated for harvesting from 24 farms, where the sheep commonly graze in October (winter) for mineral analyses. In addition, serum samples were taken via jugular vein from 20 sheep per farm from 24 farms (n = 480 samples in total) for serum minerals analyses. Mean values of macro and micro minerals were statistically compared among districts and the correlations among soil-plant-animal were statistically analyzed and correlations were regressed, as well. Results: The results revealed that there were variations for both macro and micro minerals among districts. Statistical analysis of the correlation coefficients between herbage and sheep were significantly different for most of the minerals but not for P, Cu, and Se. Many correlation regression coefficients were found significantly different among minerals of herbage, soil, and sheep serum especially those of K, Na, Fe, Mn, and Zn (between herbage and sheep serum), and Fe and Mn (between herbage and soil), Na, Fe, Mn, and Zn (between soil and sheep serum), respectively. The regression coefficient equations derived under this experiment for prediction of Ca (R² = 0.618), K (R² = 0.803), Mg (R² = 0.767), Na (R² = 0.670), Fe (R² = 0.865),Zn (R² = 0.950), Mn (R² = 0.936), and Se (R² = 0.630), resulted in significant R² values. Conclusion: It is inferred that the winter herbage minerals in all the districts were below the recommended levels for macro minerals which indicated there would be some mineral deficiencies in sheep grazing the herbage in these regions. Supplemental minerals may therefore play an important role in balancing the minerals available from the herbage in winter and would lead to increased productivity in sheep on the highland areas of China. These findings could be potentially applied to the other regions for improving the livestock productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.54-65
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• 2015

China holding the world largest shale resources, has been trying to develop their domestic shale gas fields mainly with its NOCs. Chinese shale industry looks likely to have high potential to grow in the future, considering the eager support of Chinese government and the rapid development of relevant technologies by NOCs. However, there are opposite opinions as well that Chinese shale gas could not play a positive short-term results because of the complexity of structural geology, inadequacy of water resources and related infrastructure. Recently, Korean companies began to be interseted in Chinese shale gas industry, because of the special relationships with Korean industries in terms of geographic proximity and better opportunities due to the early phase of shale gas business in China. In this study, it was tried to help those companies looking out of future Chinese shale gas industry that surveying current status and problems of Chinese shale gas industry and relevant industries and investigating some trials and policies driven by China government. As a result, the various and long-term problems in Chinese shale development were reviewed and the active supports and polices of Chinese government, NOC's trials for establishments of their independent technologies and the cooperation with foreign companies or M&As were also investigated.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.474-479
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• 2008

Radioactivity of naturally occurring radioactive nuclides (NORN) such as $^{226}Ra$, $^{228}Ac$ and $^{40}K$ were investigated for surface sediments collected from Ordos, Alashan, Taklimakan deserts and Loess plateau regions in China. By a Gamma-ray spectrometry, specific activity (SA) and SA ratio (SAR) of the NORN were determined for each source region of Asian dust. Characterization of the source regions of Asian dust was performed with the SA and SAR values. SA of $^{226}Ra$ in the three desert regions have almost same values in the range of mean value 17.9~21.9 Bq/kg, however, the SA in Loess Plateau has much higher values in the mean value of 35 Bq/Kg. SA of $^{228}Ac$ in the Ordos and Alashan desert regions have almost same values in the range of mean value 27.1~27.2 Bq/kg, and those in Taklimakan desert and Loess Plateau were 31.7 and 49.0 Bq/kg, respectively. In case of 40K, the SA in all regions have similar values in the range of 636~943 Bq/kg. The mean SAR value of $^{226}Ra/^{228}Ac$ in four source regions was almost same in the range of 0.708-0.721. It is shown that relationship between $^{226}Ra$ and $^{228}Ac$ is clearly presented in the source regions. The mean SAR values of $^{226}Ra/^{40}K$, $^{228}Ac/^{40}K$ are 0.0209-0.056, 0.0287-0.0773, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.562-574
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• 2023

Carbon neutrality has been suggested to overcome the global climate crisis caused by global climate change. Hydrogen energy is a major way to achieve carbon neutrality, and the developments and policies of hydrogen technology have been proposed to achieve this goal. To commercialize hydrogen energy resources, it is necessary to understand the overall value chain composed of hydrogen production, storage, and utilization and to present the direction of technological developments. In this paper the hydrogen strategies of major countries, including Europe, the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea will be analyzed, and hydrogen technologies by value chain will also be explain. This paper will contribute to understanding the overall hydrogen policy and technology, as both policy and technology are summarized.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 2010

Two suspicious events, which were claimed as underground nuclear tests by North Korea, were detected in the northern Korean Peninsula on October 9, 2006 and May 25, 2009. The KIGAM and Korea-China Joint seismic stations are distributed uniformly along the boundaries between North Korea and adjacent countries. In this study, the data from broadband stations with the distance of 200 to 550 km from the test site are used to analyze and compare two nuclear tests of North Korea. By comparing the time differences of the Pn-wave arrival times of 1st and 2nd tests at multiple stations, the relative locations of two test sites could be calculated precisely. From the geometrical calculation with the velocity of Pn wave $V_{Pn}$ = 8 km/s, the 2nd test site is estimated to move in the WNW direction from 1st one with the distance of 2 km. Body wave magnitude, mb of the 2nd test, which was announced officially as the network average of 4.5, varies widely with the directional location of stations from 4.1 to 5.2. The magnitude obtained from Lg wave, $m_b$(Lg), shows less variation between 4.3 to 4.7 with the average of 4.6. The moving-window spectra of time traces of 1st and 2nd tests show very similar pattern with different scale level. In addition, the corner frequencies of P wave of 1st and 2nd tests at each station show no or negligible difference. This indicates the burial depths of two tests might be very similar. The relative yield amount of the 2nd test is estimated 8 times larger than that of the 1st from the weighted average of ground-velocity amplitude ratios.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.391-409
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• 2013

The Hongseong area of the southwestern Gyeonggi massif is considered to be part of suture zone that is tectonically correlated with the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu belt of China in terms of the preservation of collisional evidences during Triassic in age. The Wolhyeonri complex, preserved at the center of the Hongseong area, consists mainly of Neoproterozoic orthogneisses and Middle Paleozoic intermediate- to high-grade metamorphic schists, orthogneisses and mafic metavolcanics. The area includes various Middle to Late Triassic intrusives (e.g. dyke or stock). They are mainly monzonite and aplite with small intrusions of monzodiorit, syenite and diorite in composition. The SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages yield 237 Ma to 222 Ma. The geochemistry of the studied Triassic intrusives show similar subuction- or arc-type signatures having Ta-Nb troughs, depletion of P and Ti, and enrichment of LILEs (large ion lithophile elements). In addition, the Triassic plutons in the Hongseong area, including those from this study, mostly possess high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic tectonic affinity. These results could be tectonically correlated to the post-collisional magmatic event following the Triassic collision between the North and South China blocks in China. Therefore, the Triassic plutons in the Hongseong area offer an important insight into the Triassic geodynamic history of the NE Asian region.