There are abundant oil shale resources in northwest oft-com:office:smarttags" />China. Field geological section survey, standard mining investigation, and laboratory analysis of important samples indicate that the oil shale in northwest China has the following features: 1) oil shale strata 1~36 m thick exist in this region; 2) the color of the oil shale is mostly brown-black, black, whereas the color of some oil shale outcrops is maroon; 3) in hand specimen, oil shale is mainly composed of clay minerals and silt-sized detrital minerals; 4) the main chemical components of oil shale are SiO2 and Al2O3; 5) oil shale deposits can be mainly divided into 3 types: littoral-neritic facies sedimentary deposits in middle and Late Carboniferous-Early Permian strata; 6) in this region, the total amount of predicted resources of oil shale is at least 30 000×108 t; and 7) in northwest China, identified oil shale deposits are located in the vicinity of large and medium-sized cities.
