According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Natural Resources, China invested a total of 400 billion yuan in mineral exploration during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with over 90% of the funds coming from social capital. In both 2023 and 2024, annual investments exceeded 100 billion yuan.
At the Ministry of Natural Resources' regular press conference for January 2025 held today (14th), Xiong Zili, Director of the Department of Geological Exploration Management, stated that in 2024, for the first time, a plan for the transfer of exploration rights was issued to local governments, setting a minimum number of exploration rights transfers. Over 1,400 strategic mineral exploration blocks were provided throughout the year, marking a record high in the past decade. The focus was on minerals such as oil and gas, lithium, copper, gold, iron, coal, bauxite, and potash, with allocations in provinces (regions) including Xinjiang, Gansu, Henan, Guangxi, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Sichuan.
Cultivating and developing strategic emerging industries and future industries is a key pathway to accelerating the formation of new productive forces. Xiong Zili introduced that China has achieved significant breakthroughs in strategic emerging mineral resources such as lithium, zirconium-hafnium, helium, and rare earths.
Regarding lithium resources, China has diverse types and abundant reserves, with widespread distribution of salt lake, spodumene, and lepidolite types. A world-class spodumene lithium metallogenic belt was newly discovered in the West Kunlun-Songpan-Ganzi region, with an estimated resource potential of 30 million mt. Significant breakthroughs were made in Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Tibet. In Sichuan's Yajiang County, the Mulong deposit was identified as the largest pegmatite-type single lithium mine in Asia. The Qinghai-Tibet region has become the world's third-largest salt lake lithium resource base, and newly added lepidolite lithium resources exceeded 10 million mt. In 2024, China's domestic lithium resource production is expected to increase by over 30%, serving as a "stabilizer" for international lithium ore market prices.
For zirconium and hafnium, newly identified zircon resources amounted to 85,000 mt, and hafnium resources exceeded 1,000 mt. Additionally, provinces (regions) such as Inner Mongolia, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan have significant potential for further exploration, providing an important resource foundation for industries such as electronics, nuclear energy, aerospace, and healthcare.
Regarding helium, which is primarily used in semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, healthcare, and nuclear industries, China achieved a major leap from zero to significant progress in helium exploration and development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, significantly reducing the country's reliance on external purchases. Newly proven geological reserves nationwide reached 4.07 billion m³, with six gas fields—Sulige, Fuling, Jingbian, Anyue, Dongsheng, and Luzhou—each having proven geological reserves exceeding 200 million m³.
For rare earth mines, China's global resource advantage has further expanded. In Shandong Province's Xishan mining area, newly added resources amounted to 1.02 million mt. In Sichuan's Liangshan Prefecture, the Maoniuping rare earth mine is expected to add 4.96 million mt, further solidifying China's position as the second-largest rare earth resource base. In southern Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, a super-large ion-adsorption rare earth mine was discovered, which is expected to become China's largest medium-heavy rare earth mine.
"Meanwhile, resources of China's advantageous minerals such as tungsten, molybdenum, antimony, fluorite, and graphite have achieved significant growth, further consolidating resource advantages. China will work together with other resource-producing countries worldwide to promote market stability and the prosperity of strategic emerging industries, meeting global demand," Xiong Zili stated.
Geological exploration units and mining enterprises are the main forces in increasing reserves and production. Yang Yonggang, Deputy Director of the Department of Mining Rights Management of the Ministry of Natural Resources, also introduced at the conference that fully leveraging the roles of geological exploration units and mining enterprises is key to the success of mineral exploration initiatives. Moving forward, efforts will be accelerated to draft the "Regulations on the Implementation of the Mineral Resources Law" and to introduce supporting policy provisions, aiming to ease restrictions and reduce burdens on the mining market, encouraging more geological exploration units and mining enterprises to participate.
