China is starting to build a train line Lop Nur, an area known as “the sea of death” in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, reports Xinhua, noting that the region is rich in potassium salt, a very rare resource in China, used in fertilizers. A road to the remote area opened in 2006. China currently imports 4 million tons a year of potassium fertilizer but plans to produce 3m tons a year once the rail line is open. The area has reserves of 500m tons, worth more than 500 billion yuan.The region once held NW China’s largest lake, which “dried up in 1972 as a result of desertification and environmental degradation”.

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