(ECNS) — China Salt Lake Industrial Group Co. Ltd., jointly created by China Minmetals Corporation and Qinghai Province, was officially inaugurated on Saturday.

China Salt Lake boasts a workforce of over 15,000 employees, with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan ($1.37 billion). China Minmetals holds 53 percent stake in the company, while Qinghai’s state-owned entities own the remaining 47 percent.

The group’s production base includes Chaerhan Salt Lake, China’s largest and the world’s second-largest soluble potash-magnesium salt deposit, and Yiliping Salt Lake, a large sulfate-type salt deposit.

Covering a mining area of nearly 4,060 square kilometers, the base possesses all mature potassium chloride processing technologies and leads globally in large-scale potassium and lithium extraction from salt lakes.

China Salt Lake has an annual production capacity of 5.3 million metric tons of potash fertilizer, 58,000 metric tons of lithium salts, and millions of metric tons of salt lake chemical products, making it the largest potash and salt lake lithium production base in the country.