The new round of breakthroughs in mineral exploration strategy has achieved significant results

Mineral resources are an important material foundation for economic and social development, and the exploration and development of mineral resources are related to national economy, people's livelihood, and national security. As of the end of 2022, 173 types of mineral resources have been discovered nationwide; In 2022, nearly 40% of China's mineral reserves have increased... The recently released "China Mineral Resources Report (2023)" shows that China's promotion and implementation of a new round of breakthrough strategy for mineral exploration has achieved significant results.

Based on ensuring national energy and resource security, and focusing on strengthening domestic exploration and development of important energy and mineral resources, as well as increasing storage and production, the natural resources system has mobilized various forces to fully promote a new round of breakthrough mining strategies, ensuring that the rice bowl of energy is in one's own hands.

Comprehensively promote mineral exploration

Secure the energy rice bowl

what is the significance of the new round of mineral exploration breakthrough strategy action?

"Mineral resources are the cornerstone of building a modern industrial system," said Tang Juxing, Deputy Chief Geologist at the Institute of Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Developing and strengthening strategic emerging industries such as high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, and aerospace requires a large amount of mineral resources such as copper, aluminum, lithium, and manganese as support. Taking the new energy vehicle industry as an example, according to statistics, each vehicle requires an average of 53.2 kilograms of copper, 8.9 kilograms of lithium, 39.9 kilograms of nickel, 24.5 kilograms of manganese, 13.3 kilograms of cobalt, 66.3 kilograms of graphite, and 0.5 kilograms of rare earths.

How is the progress of the new round of breakthrough strategic action in mineral exploration?

A set of numbers reveals the results: as of the end of 2022, 13 types of energy minerals, 59 types of metallic minerals, 95 types of non-metallic minerals, and 6 types of water and gas minerals have been discovered nationwide; Since the 14th Five Year Plan period, 8 billion ton oil fields, 11 100 billion cubic meter gas fields, 157 large and medium-sized mineral deposits have been newly discovered, 112 prospecting areas have been delineated, and 102 commercial exploration target areas have been submitted. "From the current situation, the new round of breakthrough strategic action in mineral exploration is progressing smoothly, with more than half of the time and half of the task, and it is expected to achieve the established goals," said Xiong Zili, Director of the Geological Exploration Management Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The difficulty of geological exploration is immense. Ding Zhengjiang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Captain of the Sixth Geological Brigade of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, has a metaphor: "A drill bit with a diameter of only a few centimeters can drill 3000 meters deep in high-temperature and high-pressure formations, just like a strand of hair piercing into the soil." Since its establishment in 1958, the Sixth Geological Brigade has accumulated a drilling workload of 5 million meters and discovered more than 2810 tons of gold resources, making it the geological team with the most gold exploration in the country. The Jiaodong region, where it is located, has also become the third largest gold enrichment area in the world.

The daily life of mining team members is not ordinary - most of the work is carried out in harsh wilderness conditions, with benches as beds, dense mosquitoes, and exposed to wind and rain. "Only by traversing mountains can we see gold," Ding Zhengjiang said. "In order to ensure the authenticity of scientific research in geological exploration, we must persist in going to field mining areas and large mountain deserts to obtain first-hand data and original samples." In the past year, the Sixth Geological Brigade has increased its exploration efforts and carried out a survey of the potential of deep gold resources. Nearly 50 tons of large gold deposits have been discovered in Laokou, Rushan, Shandong, and one super large lead-zinc deposit has been discovered in Hezhang, Guizhou. It is expected to submit one medium-sized graphite deposit and delineate nine gold exploration target areas. At the same time, the brigade has successively carried out exploration operations in western provinces such as Xinjiang and Qinghai, achieving three mining rights cooperation agreements; In response to the Belt and Road Initiative, mineral exploration work has been carried out in countries such as Sudan and Nigeria.

It is the hard work of the vast number of mining team members that has supported China's position as the world's largest consumer, producer, and trading country of mineral resources. Xiong Zili said that the comprehensive implementation of a new round of breakthrough mining strategy is necessary to firmly hold the job of energy in his own hands.

Relying on technological innovation

Leading mineral exploration

Li Kuan, a young man born in the 1990s, has 8 years of exploration experience in the Sixth Geological Brigade of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. Dressed in orange field work clothes, after completing the safety inspection before construction, he quickly climbed onto the machine and "drilled holes, extracted rock cores, and placed numbers..." Li Kuan described his work as "embroidering giant objects." "More than 10 meters high drilling rigs were scattered in the mountains, and they didn't stop working for 24 hours. It was clear at a glance how the underground strata were structured and what mineral resources were buried."

"Traditionally, there was a focus on the 'three major components of geology' - geological hammers, compasses, and magnifying glasses. However, nowadays, technological means and equipment such as aviation, aerospace, drones, shipborne, ground, and wellbore have become essential." Luo Qingjun, Director of the Equipment Department of the China Geological Survey, said that China's equipment level in the fields of marine geology, earth observation, and experimental testing has reached the international first-class level.

Marching towards the depths of the Earth. China's mineral exploration is shifting from shallow to deep, from searching for outcrop deposits to searching for ore in covered areas, and from low mountainous areas to middle and high mountain deep cutting areas, which requires more reliance on technological innovation.

Basic theoretical innovation plays an important role in breakthroughs in mineral exploration. Tang Juxing is the Chief Scientist of the National Copper Mine Exploration Strategy for a New Round of Exploration Breakthroughs. He has long been committed to the hinterland and neighboring areas of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. "We are exploring and establishing a copper mineralization model and exploration model, and theoretical guidance has made significant breakthroughs in exploration. Tibetan copper mines have accounted for more than two-thirds of China's copper resources."

Innovation in institutional mechanisms is a prominent feature of the new round of breakthrough strategic actions in mineral exploration. In 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources will continue to increase its support efforts, fully leverage the roles of various departments, regions, and national geological exploration teams and research units, establish an organization and implementation mechanism for mineral exploration actions, establish an expert advisory committee and expert guidance group, and provide significant technical consultation and on-site technical guidance for the implementation of mineral exploration actions.

Xiong Zili introduced that a new round of strategic breakthroughs in mineral exploration focuses on strategic mineral types. According to the overall arrangement of "stabilizing the eastern region, strengthening the central region, accelerating the western region, and expanding the sea area" for oil and gas minerals, and "deepening blind spots in the eastern region, stabilizing resource supply, and key breakthroughs and new resource bases in the western region" for solid minerals, basic survey areas, key survey areas, key exploration areas, and deep areas of important mines are set up, and basic geological surveys, strategic mineral exploration, mineral resource conservation and comprehensive utilization, and geological exploration technology innovation are carried out.

Strengthen policy support

Prosperous mining market

Data shows that the newly added lithium reserves in China in 2022 mainly come from Jiangxi, accounting for 94.5% of the increase. This is due to the lithium ore exploration battle carried out in Yifeng and Fengxin counties in Yichun region.

Since 2021, 12 geological teams in Jiangxi Province have invested more than 1200 engineering and technical personnel, as well as more than 100 drilling rigs, in simultaneous construction. Rao Xiaopeng, the leader of the drilling team in the Maoling mining area of Yifeng, introduced that during the project implementation process, all operations were carried out through "hanging a map". Every hole completed was marked with a "cancellation number" on the map, and the drilling depth of each hole was also marked on the wall. After more than two years of exploration, a total of 4 ultra large scale and 6 large-scale lithium deposits have been discovered in the Yichun area, with a submitted lithium ore resource of over 8.58 million tons.

The fruitful achievements in lithium ore exploration have effectively promoted the vigorous development of Yichun's lithium battery new energy industry. At present, there are 238 lithium-ion new energy production enterprises in Yichun City, covering lithium mining and processing, positive and negative electrode materials, separators, lithium-ion batteries and supporting facilities, battery recycling and other complete industrial systems, forming a full industry chain development model of "lithium resources - lithium salts - lithium materials - lithium batteries - lithium applications - lithium recycling". From January to October this year, the lithium battery new energy industry in Yichun City achieved a revenue of 88.034 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.45%.

Bo Zhiping, Director of the Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that in the new round of mineral exploration, the exploration of mineral resources will highlight clean energy and strategic emerging industry resources. The exploration of lithium mines in the Yichun area is an example of China's mining enterprises laying out new energy and resource deep processing fields. In order to promote exploration and development, as well as increase reserves and production, nearly 20 lithium ore blocks in provinces such as Sichuan, Yunnan, and Xinjiang are actively carrying out pre sale preparation work. In the future, various channels such as evaluation of exploration target areas and submission by provincial natural resources authorities will be used to continuously expand the source of blocks.

"Mining enterprises are the main body of mineral exploration, shouldering the heavy responsibility of increasing reserves and production." Deng Guoping, Director of the Mining Rights Management Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, introduced that the Ministry of Natural Resources has strengthened policy support to provide guarantees for mining enterprises to adjust their development paths: effectively reducing the burden on enterprises, the "Mining Rights Concession Income Collection Method" has been officially implemented, and the collection method has changed from one-time collection when obtaining mining rights to mainly annual collection based on sales revenue during mining production; Standardize the system of mining rights transfer, and relevant supporting documents such as the "Guidelines for Setting Market Benchmark Prices of Mining Rights Transfer Income" have been successively issued to improve the policies for mineral resource exploration and extraction.

In the first half of this year, the investment in solid mineral and oil and gas mineral exploration in China increased by 17.2% and 7.5% year-on-year, respectively; 242 new exploration rights were established, a year-on-year increase of 25.4%. Deng Guoping stated that encouraging "mining exploration", abolishing the separation and change restrictions of exploration rights, relaxing the transfer restrictions of exploration rights, will enable more geological exploration units and enterprises with technology, ability, and willingness to obtain exploration rights, thereby accelerating exploration and development, increasing storage and production, and safeguarding the main position of energy supply.

Based on ensuring national energy and resource security, and focusing on strengthening domestic exploration and development of important energy and mineral resources, as well as increasing storage and production, the natural resources system has mobilized various forces to fully promote a new round of breakthrough mining strategies, ensuring that the rice bowl of energy is in one's own hands.

Comprehensively promote mineral exploration

Secure the energy rice bowl

What is the significance of the new round of mineral exploration breakthrough strategy action?

"Mineral resources are the cornerstone of building a modern industrial system," said Tang Juxing, Deputy Chief Geologist at the Institute of Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Developing and strengthening strategic emerging industries such as high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, and aerospace requires a large amount of mineral resources such as copper, aluminum, lithium, and manganese as support. Taking the new energy vehicle industry as an example, according to statistics, each vehicle requires an average of 53.2 kilograms of copper, 8.9 kilograms of lithium, 39.9 kilograms of nickel, 24.5 kilograms of manganese, 13.3 kilograms of cobalt, 66.3 kilograms of graphite, and 0.5 kilograms of rare earths.

How is the progress of the new round of breakthrough strategic action in mineral exploration?

A set of numbers reveals the results: as of the end of 2022, 13 types of energy minerals, 59 types of metallic minerals, 95 types of non-metallic minerals, and 6 types of water and gas minerals have been discovered nationwide; Since the 14th Five Year Plan period, 8 billion ton oil fields, 11 100 billion cubic meter gas fields, 157 large and medium-sized mineral deposits have been newly discovered, 112 prospecting areas have been delineated, and 102 commercial exploration target areas have been submitted. "From the current situation, the new round of breakthrough strategic action in mineral exploration is progressing smoothly, with more than half of the time and half of the task, and it is expected to achieve the established goals," said Xiong Zili, Director of the Geological Exploration Management Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The difficulty of geological exploration is immense. Ding Zhengjiang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Captain of the Sixth Geological Brigade of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, has a metaphor: "A drill bit with a diameter of only a few centimeters can drill 3000 meters deep in high-temperature and high-pressure formations, just like a strand of hair piercing into the soil." Since its establishment in 1958, the Sixth Geological Brigade has accumulated a drilling workload of 5 million meters and discovered more than 2810 tons of gold resources, making it the geological team with the most gold exploration in the country. The Jiaodong region, where it is located, has also become the third largest gold enrichment area in the world.

The daily life of mining team members is not ordinary - most of the work is carried out in harsh wilderness conditions, with benches as beds, dense mosquitoes, and exposed to wind and rain. "Only by traversing mountains can we see gold," Ding Zhengjiang said. "In order to ensure the authenticity of scientific research in geological exploration, we must persist in going to field mining areas and large mountain deserts to obtain first-hand data and original samples." In the past year, the Sixth Geological Brigade has increased its exploration efforts and carried out a survey of the potential of deep gold resources. Nearly 50 tons of large gold deposits have been discovered in Laokou, Rushan, Shandong, and one super large lead-zinc deposit has been discovered in Hezhang, Guizhou. It is expected to submit one medium-sized graphite deposit and delineate nine gold exploration target areas. At the same time, the brigade has successively carried out exploration operations in western provinces such as Xinjiang and Qinghai, achieving three mining rights cooperation agreements; In response to the Belt and Road Initiative, mineral exploration work has been carried out in countries such as Sudan and Nigeria.

It is the hard work of the vast number of mining team members that has supported China's position as the world's largest consumer, producer, and trading country of mineral resources. Xiong Zili said that the comprehensive implementation of a new round of breakthrough mining strategy is necessary to firmly hold the job of energy in his own hands.

Relying on technological innovation

Leading mineral exploration

Li Kuan, a young man born in the 1990s, has 8 years of exploration experience in the Sixth Geological Brigade of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. Dressed in orange field work clothes, after completing the safety inspection before construction, he quickly climbed onto the machine and "drilled holes, extracted rock cores, and placed numbers..." Li Kuan described his work as "embroidering giant objects." "More than 10 meters high drilling rigs were scattered in the mountains, and they didn't stop working for 24 hours. It was clear at a glance how the underground strata were structured and what mineral resources were buried."

"Traditionally, there was a focus on the 'three major components of geology' - geological hammers, compasses, and magnifying glasses. However, nowadays, technological means and equipment such as aviation, aerospace, drones, shipborne, ground, and wellbore have become essential." Luo Qingjun, Director of the Equipment Department of the China Geological Survey, said that China's equipment level in the fields of marine geology, earth observation, and experimental testing has reached the international first-class level.

Marching towards the depths of the Earth. China's mineral exploration is shifting from shallow to deep, from searching for outcrop deposits to searching for ore in covered areas, and from low mountainous areas to middle and high mountain deep cutting areas, which requires more reliance on technological innovation.

Basic theoretical innovation plays an important role in breakthroughs in mineral exploration. Tang Juxing is the Chief Scientist of the National Copper Mine Exploration Strategy for a New Round of Exploration Breakthroughs. He has long been committed to the hinterland and neighboring areas of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. "We are exploring and establishing a copper mineralization model and exploration model, and theoretical guidance has made significant breakthroughs in exploration. Tibetan copper mines have accounted for more than two-thirds of China's copper resources."

Innovation in institutional mechanisms is a prominent feature of the new round of breakthrough strategic actions in mineral exploration. In 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources will continue to increase its support efforts, fully leverage the roles of various departments, regions, and national geological exploration teams and research units, establish an organization and implementation mechanism for mineral exploration actions, establish an expert advisory committee and expert guidance group, and provide significant technical consultation and on-site technical guidance for the implementation of mineral exploration actions.

Xiong Zili introduced that a new round of strategic breakthroughs in mineral exploration focuses on strategic mineral types. According to the overall arrangement of "stabilizing the eastern region, strengthening the central region, accelerating the western region, and expanding the sea area" for oil and gas minerals, and "deepening blind spots in the eastern region, stabilizing resource supply, and key breakthroughs and new resource bases in the western region" for solid minerals, basic survey areas, key survey areas, key exploration areas, and deep areas of important mines are set up, and basic geological surveys, strategic mineral exploration, mineral resource conservation and comprehensive utilization, and geological exploration technology innovation are carried out.

Strengthen policy support

Prosperous mining market

Data shows that the newly added lithium reserves in China in 2022 mainly come from Jiangxi, accounting for 94.5% of the increase. This is due to the lithium ore exploration battle carried out in Yifeng and Fengxin counties in Yichun region.

Since 2021, 12 geological teams in Jiangxi Province have invested more than 1200 engineering and technical personnel, as well as more than 100 drilling rigs, in simultaneous construction. Rao Xiaopeng, the leader of the drilling team in the Maoling mining area of Yifeng, introduced that during the project implementation process, all operations were carried out through "hanging a map". Every hole completed was marked with a "cancellation number" on the map, and the drilling depth of each hole was also marked on the wall. After more than two years of exploration, a total of 4 ultra large scale and 6 large-scale lithium deposits have been discovered in the Yichun area, with a submitted lithium ore resource of over 8.58 million tons.

The fruitful achievements in lithium ore exploration have effectively promoted the vigorous development of Yichun's lithium battery new energy industry. At present, there are 238 lithium battery new energy production enterprises in Yichun City, covering lithium mining and processing, positive and negative electrodes