Since the party’s 16th National Congress, China’s economy and society have continued to grow rapidly, and consumption of mineral products has entered a period of rapid growth. Due to various factors such as demand-driven and interest-driven, China's mineral exploration investment has continued to increase, and major breakthroughs have been made in mineral exploration.

Mineral exploration investment continues to grow

Since the 16th CPC National Congress, China’s geological exploration investment has increased substantially year by year. From 2002 to 2011, the country’s geological exploration investment increased from 22.2 billion yuan to 111.6 billion yuan, an increase of 4 times.

Among them, the geological exploration of oil and gas resources increased from 18.96 billion yuan to 67.3 billion yuan, an increase of 2.5 times, mainly by the four major state-owned companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Yanchang Oil. Non-oil and gas resources geological exploration investment increased from 3.2 billion yuan to 44.3 billion yuan, an increase of 12.7 times. Non-oil and gas resources are increasingly diversified. The proportion of social investment is increasing year by year, accounting for 70% of the total investment. It has become the main source of non-oil and gas exploration in China. The diversification of non-oil and gas resources and geological exploration input led by financial funds and participation of social funds has already taken shape.

Big investment has driven the acceleration of mineral exploration work. From 2002 to 2011, the country’s mineral exploration work completed a total of 12.18 million meters of drilling work and a total of 6.18 million meters of pit exploration, which has increased significantly year by year.

Significant growth in important mineral reserves

From 2002 to 2011, 2,095 large and medium-sized mineral deposits were newly discovered throughout the country. Major mineral reserves such as oil, natural gas, coal, iron, copper, aluminum, gold, and potassium have all increased substantially.

Statistics show that China's coal resources identified from 1.02 trillion tons to 1.38 trillion tons, an increase of 35.2%; recoverable reserves of oil from 2.38 billion tons to 3.24 billion tons, an increase of 36.2%; natural gas technology can be recovered Reserves increased from 2.0 trillion cubic meters to 4.0 trillion cubic meters, an increase of 99.4%; iron ore found that resource reserves increased from 578.7 million tons to 74.39 billion tons, an increase of 28.5%.

At the same time, from 2002 to 2011, China's copper reserves have increased from 27.752 million tons to 86.121 million tons, an increase of 27.5%; bauxite reserves have increased from 2.50 billion tons to 3.87 billion tons, an increase of 54.8%. The mine identified that the reserves have increased from 37,766,000 tons to 56,020,000 tons, an increase of 47.6%; the zinc reserves have increased from 78,814 tons to 11,568,800 tons, representing an increase of 18.3%; the nickel reserves have increased from 8,146 tons. To 9.382 million tons, an increase of 15.2%; gold ore resources identified from 4539.5 tons to 7419.4 tons, an increase of 63.4%; silver mineral resources identified from 119,000 tons to 187,000 tons, an increase of 57.3%; superior mineral tungsten The mine identified that the reserve of natural resources rose from 5.87 million tons to 6.204 million tons, an increase of 7.2%; the identified reserves of molybdenum ore increased from 9.859 million tons to 19.359 million tons, an increase of 96.4%.

Geological exploration has achieved remarkable results

In the past 10 years, China has implemented a series of special geological exploration work, organized a survey of 1010 large and medium-sized mines of 30 minerals such as coal, iron, aluminum and copper, and fully grasped the status of the nation’s crisis mines. There are 632 crisis mines in 15 years, accounting for 63% of the total number of mines surveyed, of which 392 have prospecting potential. Among them, 48 have made breakthroughs in exploration, and their exploration reserves have reached the scale of large-scale or super-large deposits; 76 have made important progress, and exploration reserves have reached the scale of medium-sized deposits; 94 exploration resources have reached small-scale deposits. Some reserves of minerals have increased significantly, causing a large number of old mines to rejuvenate. Some mining towns have been rejuvenated and their economic and social benefits have been remarkable.

Since its establishment in November 2006, the Central Geological Exploration Survey** has effectively promoted the connection between public geological work and commercial mineral exploration by investing in mineral prospecting projects with large prospects for ore prospecting, high risks, and low levels of work and implementation of exit mechanisms. , Focused on the early exploration of coal, iron, copper, aluminum, potassium and other national energy and urgently needed shortages of minerals as well as tungsten, tin, antimony, rare earth and other advantageous minerals. At present, the Central Government of the People's Republic of China has deployed 303 mineral exploration projects and focused on promoting mineral prospecting in key minerals and important mineralization zones. At present, a total of 1,025,400 meters of drilling work have been completed, and 53 large and medium-sized mineral deposits of important minerals such as coal, copper, nickel, bauxite, lead and zinc have been submitted, of which 34 are large and large, and 19 are medium-sized. At the Department, the prospecting results are very significant.

In order to fully understand and scientifically assess the potential of China's mineral resources, the Ministry of Land and Resources has deployed 25 types of minerals including coal, iron, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, manganese, nickel, tungsten, tin, antimony, potassium, and gold. National mineral resources potential assessment work. The results of the assessment initially showed that the overall level of identification of important mineral resources in China is about one-quarter to one-third, and the forecasted resources for iron, copper, aluminum, gold, and potassium salts are 2 to 3 times the identified resources.

At present, China’s past exploration depth is generally shallow at 500 meters, and there is still great potential for prospecting in the deep and peripheral areas. The 1010 large and medium-sized mines that support more than 80% of the country's production capacity are mainly distributed in the eastern region, and nearly half of the mines have further prospecting potential.