On April 29, Xiong Zili, Director of the Geological Exploration Management Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, introduced at a regular press conference that China has successfully completed the target tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan's mineral exploration breakthrough action, achieving significant progress in mineral exploration and reserve increase, providing solid resource support for the high-quality development of the national economy.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, 398 new strategic mineral deposits (oil and gas fields) were discovered, including 225 large and medium-sized oil and gas fields. Newly proven geological reserves of oil and gas maintained high growth. A number of historic breakthroughs were achieved in the exploration of major minerals such as copper, gold, and potash. The exploration of strategic emerging minerals such as lithium, helium, and high-purity quartz achieved leapfrog development. The ability to ensure resource self-sufficiency has been significantly enhanced, strongly supporting the construction and consolidation of 198 energy and resource bases, and significantly improving the position and competitiveness of China's mining industry in the global industrial division of labor. First, China's mineral resource reserves have increased significantly, making its resource base more substantial. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China ranked first in the world in reserves of 14 minerals, including rare earths, tungsten, tin, molybdenum, antimony, gallium, germanium, indium, fluorite, and graphite; and ranked among the top four in reserves of nine other minerals, including coal, iron, manganese, titanium, lithium, zinc, phosphorus, and magnesite. This substantial increase in resource reserves directly stems from the systematic exploration and reserve-increasing work on scarce and advantageous minerals under the strategic action for breakthroughs in mineral exploration, laying a solid foundation for resource self-sufficiency and control.
Second, China's mineral production and smelting processing scale remains the world's largest, and its dominant position in the industrial chain continues to be consolidated. By 2025, China will rank first in the world in the production of 17 minerals, including coal, vanadium, titanium, zinc, rare earths, tungsten, tin, molybdenum, antimony, gallium, indium, gold, tellurium, phosphorus, fluorite, and graphite, with the production of 11 of these minerals, including rare earths, tungsten, antimony, gallium, indium, and tellurium, accounting for more than 50% of global production. In the smelting and processing sector, China's advantages are even more prominent. It accounts for 99% of global manganese smelting products, 94% of rare earth smelting products, 60% of aluminum, 53% of steel, and 47% of copper. China ranks first in the world in the production of more than 30 metallurgical products, and accounts for about 50% of global production of 17 products. This signifies that China is not only a major producer of mineral resources, but also a leading supplier and key player in the global smelting and processing industry, ensuring the stability of China's industrial chain and strongly promoting the development of emerging industries.
