The use of kaolin has made a leap in the quality of ceramic products and greatly promoted the progress of porcelain raw materials and techniques in Europe, Asia, and even the world.
Jingzhen porcelain production has a history of more than a thousand years, and kaolin has actually been mined for more than 1,700 years.
But now in Gaoling Village, there are no more porcelain clay resources.
However, after more than a thousand years of mining, the kaolin in Kaoling Village has been mined out.
All that remains are some abandoned mines. Near this area, weathered muscovite granite is widely distributed, producing sandy kaolin.
It was because of such high-quality porcelain clay resources that the world-famous porcelain capital Jingzhen was created.
And now that there is no kaolin, then Jingzhen is no longer the porcelain capital?
No, because the heritage of the Porcelain City determines that it will always be the Porcelain City in the future.
However, as one of the most important resources in porcelain making, the depletion of kaolin resources has become an inevitable outcome.
As one of the important raw materials for manufacturing porcelain bodies, kaolin is closely related to the quality of porcelain and the fate of the porcelain manufacturing industry.
Jingzhen's kaolin is a high-quality kaolin ore with extremely pure texture. Because of its extremely low iron content, it is the best raw material for preparing high-grade fine porcelain blanks and glazes.
The use of kaolin at that time was a major revolution in the history of porcelain making in my country and even the world.
The kaolin clay body is white in color and the porcelain body has high fire resistance.
This makes ceramics the representative of hard porcelain. The acid and alkali resistance and hardness of ceramics are much higher than those of ceramics from other origins.
It is also because of these reasons that there is a saying that "ceramics are not broken until they are worn out".
In fact, in addition to Jingzhen, there are also many places where kaolin resources exist, but they are not as good as those in Kaoling.
According to the current consumption of china clay, in another 20 years, china clay resources will be exhausted in many places.
No matter how you look at it, it is an indisputable fact that China clay resources are facing depletion.
Kaolin clay is the same as coal. Kaolin clay is formed through the geological process of long-term weathering of rock minerals, which has a history of at least tens of thousands of years.
There is not much kaolin left now, so please cherish every piece of beautifully crafted porcelain!
Of course, these are still far away from Chen Wenzhe. The reason why he is studying kaolin resources is mainly because he wants to find some suitable ancient mining sites.
There must be many ancient kaolin mine sites in Jingzhen, such as the kaolin ancient mine site in Fuliang Kaoling Village, located in the northeast of the city.
It is the source of porcelain clay in the world and the root of porcelain.
Jingzhen Gaoling National Mining Park, with the ancient mine as its core, contains a long history of ceramic culture and is now a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Mining of this ancient Kaoling mine began in the Song Dynasty, with peak mining activity from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty, and continued until the 1960s.
Hundreds of years of large-scale kaolin mining have left behind a large number of historical and cultural relics and cultural monuments.
The ancient mines of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and millions of tons of tailings mines, as well as ancient washing ponds, ancient ore transport roads and other ancient relics have been preserved to this day.
This comprehensively reflects the complete one-stop system of procurement, selection, transportation and sales at that time.
Local people call it "green mountains with white snow" and "jade belt around green mountains".
Of course, these are not important at all. What is important is that at the Gaoling ancient mine site, the mountains are covered with thick tailings.
Tailings refers to the sand leftover from the miners' washing of china clay. It contains crystal clear muscovite that will sparkle in the sun.
According to repeated investigations and calculations, the tailings accumulation area in the four mining areas of Gaoling Mountain is about 160,000 square meters, with a total volume of more than 7.5 million tons.
The minimum accumulation thickness is 5 meters, and the maximum thickness is nearly 30 meters.
This spectacular tailings accumulation layer witnesses the prosperity of kaolin mining in those years.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, kaolin was transported from the wharf at the foot of the mountain to Jingzhen for use in the porcelain industry. Jingzhen porcelain also became a world trade treasure sold overseas.
The continuous production of porcelain requires kaolin miners working day and night all year round.
After 1965, the china clay mine in Kaoling Mountain ceased production after hundreds of years of mining.
Today, the ancient Kaoling mine no longer contains kaolin, and the tailings piles are covered with vegetation, leaving only some mining relics for people to pay homage to.
As the capital of porcelain, Jingzhen has gone through great changes in its history that has lasted for thousands of years.
It has never changed its appearance and has always maintained its own style.
The ancient kaolin mine in Jingzhen has now returned to the embrace of green mountains and green waters.
However, its long history of porcelain culture and craftsmanship has firmly established it as the "Porcelain Capital".
We also need to think about how to use limited resources to infinitely promote ceramic culture and achieve sustainable development!
It can be said that the premature development of kaolin gave us a first-mover advantage.
However, this also caused many of our high-quality resources to dry up in the first place.
This is also one of the reasons why the porcelain industry in other parts of the world developed later.
Entering the 20th century, the foreign porcelain industry developed rapidly.
Even now, due to large-scale and high-tech production, some foreign porcelain companies even think that they have surpassed China.
However, the Chinese people have never acknowledged this.
In Chen Wenzhe's view, there is the power of technology, but more of it is the power of capital, and they also know how to brag, that is, how to advertise.
Coupled with the domestic worship of foreigners and foreigners in recent decades, they have a place in the domestic market.
Other than that, there's really nothing else to say.
Without further ado, let’s turn back to Yuan Qinghua and binary formula.
The resources on the Kaoling Mountains and Macang Mountains are almost exhausted.
However, through the research just now, we can see that no matter what kind of ore it is, there will be some tailings during mining.
Chen Wenzhe is paying attention to this part of the tailings mine. Of course, by doing this, he will definitely not get much kaolin, but he can always get some.
And there is no need for Chen Wenzhe to deal with this. As long as he pays, there are many local companies that can help him get everything he wants.
However, the quantity will definitely not be large and the cost will be very high.
However, if you want to re-burn the real Yuanqinghua, it is really necessary to study those tailings mines.
Of course, the kaolin clay produced in this way will definitely not be enough.
Don’t worry about this. In addition to Kaoling Mountain, Macang Mountain, and Jingzhen, there must be other kaolin resources nearby!
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe just wanted to study the ancient mines of kaolin.
In the end, he still needs to find a way to process the kaolin according to the Yuan blue and white production process.
If we can transform kaolin clay into special Macang soil, then we can truly re-burn Yuan blue and white flowers.
"It seems that this time, we are going to take the high-quality route."
Due to the long preparation time, Chen Wenzhe already had some ancient mine kaolin in his hands.
However, this kind of kaolin clay is definitely not Macang clay.
However, the various elements contained within them are not much different.
At this time, Chen Wenzhe could only rely on the pure Yuan blue and white production technology and first process the porcelain clay.