Ge Honglin: Shaping a New Development Pattern for the Non-Ferrous Mining Industry that is Innovative, Green, Digital, Intelligent, and Win-Win

Shaping a New Paradigm for the Development of Non-Ferrous Mining Industry: Innovation, Green, Digital, and Win-Win Cooperation

——Excerpt from a speech at the 2025 (21st) China Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Conference

China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association

Party Secretary and Chairman Ge Honglin

Taking advantage of this conference, I would like to share four perspectives on shaping a new paradigm for the high-quality development of China's non-ferrous metals mining industry.

New Changes in the Global Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Industry

Currently, amidst unprecedented global transformations, the international landscape is undergoing profound reshaping. With intensifying competition among major powers and the continuous deepening of the global technological revolution and industrial transformation, critical minerals have become a key area of strategic competition among countries. As an important basic industry of the national economy, the strategic value of the non-ferrous metals mining industry is increasingly prominent globally, and its development landscape is exhibiting unprecedented new characteristics.

First, geopolitical rivalries are intensifying, and the supply chain of critical minerals is facing the risk of instability.From an external perspective, with the intensifying rivalry between China and the US, the US is vigorously promoting the autonomy of the industry chain for critical minerals and collaborating with overseas allies to establish a resilient supply chain for critical minerals. In particular, over the past one to two years, its control over critical minerals, key technologies, and critical equipment has been continuously strengthening. Non-economic factors such as national security and public security are exerting an increasing influence on the division of labor in the global industrial chain.

For example, the US and Europe are accelerating the establishment of critical minerals alliances, attempting to exclude other countries from the global supply chain through mechanisms such as the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) and the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act requires that by 2030, the localization ratio of lithium and rare earth processing should exceed 40%. The US's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) excludes foreign battery materials through tax incentives. Such industrial policies, characterized by anti-globalization and over-securitization, aim to create a "chilling effect" on other countries' overseas mineral investments. In the future, for China's mining industry or overseas investments, especially in the field of foreign investment cooperation related to critical minerals, systemic risks will continue to rise. Identifying and addressing these risks has gradually become one of the important topics for the internationalization and globalization of Chinese enterprises.

Second, resource nationalism is on the rise, and overseas layouts are facing the risk of reconfiguration.From the successive disputes over foreign investment cooperation in Niger, DRC, Chad, and other places to the large-scale cancellation of mining licenses (46) in Guinea, these seemingly isolated cases actually reflect profound changes in the global mining order. Taking cobalt as an example, the DRC supplies 70% of the world's cobalt resources. On February 22 this year, the DRC announced a four-month suspension of all cobalt ore exports. It is estimated that the suspension of exports may lead to a reduction of approximately 70,000 mt in exports in 2025. Affected by this, the price of refined cobalt experienced significant volatility, rising from 160,000 yuan/mt in the last week of February to 240,000 yuan/mt in the first week of May, with a cumulative increase of over 50% in two months. This policy adjustment not only exposed the risk of a singularized global cobalt resource supply chain but also inevitably accelerated the process of diversifying the global cobalt supply chain.

Thirdly, upgraded requirements for green, low-carbon, and responsible sourcing are reshaping global investment philosophies. This not only involves stricter environmental regulations and increased supply chain transparency but also represents a rigid assessment of the sustainable development capabilities of the global industry chain. For example, the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) includes aluminum and nickel in its initial taxation scope. The New Battery Regulation requires full life cycle carbon footprint certification for lithium carbonate by 2027, compelling mainstream battery enterprises to increase the proportion of green electricity used in the production of lithium batteries and actively promote zero-carbon factories. In the future, ESG ratings and responsible supply chain audits will directly impact corporate financing costs and international cooperation opportunities. More importantly, they will reshape global investment philosophies.

New Development Trends in China's Non-Ferrous Metals Industry

As a crucial basic material for the national economy, the non-ferrous metals industry has achieved remarkable results in high-quality development in recent years, benefiting from breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, the vigorous development of new quality productive forces such as the "new three" (PV, lithium-ion battery and NEV), the continuous deepening of domestic supply-side structural reforms, the steady advancement of "Belt and Road" international cooperation, and the support of national policies to expand domestic demand. The industry's total return on assets has exceeded the national industrial average for four consecutive years, and its added value, revenue, and profits rank among the top in the national industrial sector. The specific situation is as follows:

Trend 1: Continuing to maintain a positive development momentum. According to statistics, from January to April, the production of ten non-ferrous metals reached 26.6 million mt, up 2.3% YoY. The growth rate of the added value of the non-ferrous metals industry above designated size increased by 7.4% YoY. Fixed asset investment increased by 20.7% compared to the same period last year, surpassing the national industrial investment growth rate by 9 percentage points. Non-ferrous metals industrial enterprises above designated size achieved a revenue of 3.09 trillion yuan, up 18.0% YoY, and a total profit of 128.17 billion yuan, up 30.3% YoY, continuing to lead in the industrial sector.

Trend 2: Technological innovation has become a powerful driving force for industry development. In recent years, China has achieved breakthroughs in a number of key generic technologies in the non-ferrous metals sector, injecting strong momentum into the development of the global non-ferrous metals industry. Among them, the independently developed efficient leaching technology for low-grade laterite nickel ore hydrometallurgy has transformed the global nickel resource supply landscape. The adsorption-membrane method for lithium extraction from salt lakes with a high magnesium-to-lithium ratio has solved the core challenges of low efficiency, high cost, and significant pollution in separating magnesium and lithium from China's salt lake brines, significantly enhancing China's lithium resource utilization level. Another example is the cobalt precipitation-specific active magnesium oxide product developed by Western Mining Co., Ltd., which has broken the long-term monopoly of foreign products in the African cobalt precipitation magnesium oxide market and provided strong support for domestic enterprises to enter the international market. In addition, domestically developed process technologies such as continuous copper smelting and converting technology, triple-furnace lead smelting technology, zinc smelting leaching residue disposal technology, and regenerative vertical tank magnesium smelting technology have all reached world-class advanced levels. The application of intelligent "wind power" and "PV" direct current (DC) power supply for aluminum smelting technology has become a typical case of technology-driven industrial innovation and is leading the global development of green electricity aluminum smelting.

Trend 3: Industry chain integration and policy coordination inject new vitality into the industry. Currently, China's non-ferrous metals industry is transitioning from "leading in scale" to "leading in quality." "Industry chain integration" and "policy coordination" are transforming the traditional development model of non-ferrous metals. For instance, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, has established a full chain of "mining - separation and smelting - magnetic materials - permanent magnet motors." Jiyuan, Henan Province, has achieved comprehensive utilisation of rare and precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, antimony, and bismuth, as well as cogeneration, following a circular development model of "resources - products - waste products - renewable resources," truly achieving "full utilisation" and creating a sample of China's lead circular economy. Meanwhile, policy coordination is injecting development vitality into the industry. For example, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, has issued the "Rare Earth, Tungsten, and Rare Metal Industry Development Plan (2021-2025)" and the "Three-Year Action Plan for High-Quality Development of the Permanent Magnet Motor Industry," along with the "Ten Golden Rules for Investment Attraction," providing strong policy support and institutional guarantees for the development of the "rare earth - permanent magnet motor" industry chain through a combination of policies such as land allocation preferences, equipment subsidies, and tax exemptions.

Trend 4: The construction of green mine factories has significantly enhanced the sustainable development capabilities of industry enterprises. According to relevant statistics, currently, there are over 4,000 green mines nationwide, accounting for 10% of non-oil and gas licensed mines in China. In terms of scale, large and medium-sized mines account for over 70% in total. In terms of industry, there are 314 green mines in the non-ferrous metals industry, accounting for 7.8% of green mines nationwide and 14% of licensed non-ferrous metal mines, which is higher than the average level of the mining industry. Among them, there are 124 national-level green non-ferrous metal mines, 134 provincial-level green non-ferrous metal mines, and 56 prefecture-level green non-ferrous metal mines, not only with a high overall level but also with full coverage of large mines.

Trend 5: The strategic supporting role of the non-ferrous metals industry in modern manufacturing is becoming increasingly prominent. China is the only country in the world capable of producing almost all "critical metals" in the "Mendeleev's Periodic Table" and has a complete supporting industry chain system. It is capable of not only producing qualified non-ferrous metal products but also supporting the production of high-end materials for key downstream sectors, thereby ensuring China's leading position in critical areas such as high-speed rail, PV, new energy batteries, and NEVs. Additionally, it has achieved mass application of high-end and high-purity materials such as 7N-grade high-purity indium for 5G communication chips and 6N-grade high-purity copper for integrated circuits. Large-format ultra-high-purity nickel-platinum targets and other sputtering targets have broken foreign technological monopolies, achieving independent control. The R&D and application technologies for new energy materials such as sintered NdFeB magnetic materials and LFP have reached world-class levels, effectively supporting the development needs of industries such as next-generation information technology, new energy, and high-end equipment. The development of non-ferrous metal materials not only meets the needs of critical sectors in China and globally but also serves as a powerful measure to safeguard national security, enhance the resilience of the industry chain, and counter hegemonic practices. For example, following the Ministry of Commerce's inclusion of gallium and germanium in the export control list on August 1, 2023, antimony, tungsten, bismuth, tellurium, molybdenum, indium, and rare earths were successively added to the export control list in 2024 and 2025. Particularly against the backdrop of the "tariff war" initiated by the US, China's non-ferrous metal industry has provided strong support for countering hegemonic practices.

China's Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Industry

New Challenges in High-Quality Development

Since the "14th Five-Year Plan," China's mineral resource security capacity has significantly improved. A number of major projects have been implemented domestically, including the Yulong Copper Mine in Tibet, the Julong Copper Mine, the Xiarihamu Nickel Mine in Qinghai, and the Dahongliutan Rare Earth Metal Mine in Xinjiang's Hotan. A series of resource projects have also been put into operation overseas in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and other regions, further enhancing resource security capacity. By the end of 2024, the production of copper from overseas equity mines by Chinese enterprises accounted for nearly 30% of China's demand for copper concentrates. The production of overseas equity bauxite accounted for over 60% of imported bauxite and over 40% of the bauxite required for alumina production. The production of overseas equity nickel and cobalt fully met domestic demand. The "going global" strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative have injected new momentum into securing China's non-ferrous metal resources. However, despite these achievements, the development of China's non-ferrous metal mining industry still faces numerous new challenges.

Challenge 1: Ensuring the security of critical mineral resources remains the primary issue for industry development.As China's demand for non-ferrous metal mineral resources continues to expand, how to ensure a safe, sufficient, and stable supply of critical mineral resources remains the primary challenge confronting the industry. According to statistics, in 2024, the physical content of imported non-ferrous metal ore products in China reached 230 million mt, a 4.5% increase from 2023. The overall "external purchase ratio" of the non-ferrous metal industry exceeded 60%. Among the 22 major non-ferrous metal minerals in China, 18 mineral resources rely on imports, and 12 have an external dependency ratio exceeding 50%. Among them, the external dependency ratios for strategic mineral resources such as copper, aluminum, nickel, cobalt, lithium, tantalum, niobium, and platinum group metals reach 80%, 67%, 86%, 98%, 70%, 90%, 95%, and 80%, respectively. The "externally purchased ratio" for traditionally advantageous minerals like tin, antimony, and zinc is also continuously rising, reaching 65%, 40%, and 37%, respectively. Behind this set of data lies the hidden pain of supply chain security.

Challenge 2: The environmental governance situation for mines and smelting remains severe. Currently, although breakthroughs have been achieved in China's mining technology and clean metallurgical technology, waste-free mining has been realized in individual lead-zinc mines. Arsenic and mercury in the smelting process can basically be recovered and reused. However, with the continuous increase in total volume, the disposal quantity and digestion difficulty are both rising. Additionally, with the upgrading of environmental protection standards, special emission standards for air and water pollutants are being implemented in key regions, imposing stricter environmental protection requirements on the production processes of mines and smelters. "Special emissions" have gradually become a standard configuration for heavy non-ferrous metal smelters. In 2024, seven ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Natural Resources, jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Construction of Green Mines," explicitly requiring that by the end of 2028, 90% of large mines and 80% of medium-sized mines must meet the standards, while small mines need to strengthen management with reference to the standards. The policy has specially established a closed-loop management mechanism of "rectification within a time limit - evaluation and acceptance - withdrawal and elimination," and has introduced supporting financial support policies such as green credit and special bonds. Currently, the non-ferrous metal industry has only a 2-3 year window for transformation. It is imperative to focus on overcoming the application of core technologies such as green and low-carbon advanced and applicable technologies to achieve the goal of green mine construction on schedule.

Challenge 3: Insufficient technological innovation remains a bottleneck that urgently needs to be broken through. Technological innovation in the non-ferrous metal mining industry faces multi-dimensional bottlenecks, specifically reflected in the inefficient extraction of low-grade ores, insufficient transformation of deep-sea mining equipment and core technologies, and lagging industrial synergy and digital transformation. For example, in the field of deep-sea mining in China, in 2021, the Changsha Institute of Mining Research under Minmetals developed the world's first set of 6000-meter-level intelligent equipment for deep-sea mining operations, enabling China to take the lead in the global competition for deep-sea mineral resources. However, full commercialization still requires breaking through multiple bottlenecks in technology, policy, environmental protection, and economics. In the future, it is necessary to take technological innovation as the core, balance resource development and ecological protection, and lead the formulation of standards and rules to occupy a dominant position in this strategic emerging field. Additionally, the digital and intelligent development of mines has become a trend, but the penetration rate of intelligent mines and industrial internet in the entire industry is still low, and the automation level of production processes needs to be improved.

Challenge 4: Cut-throat competition remains a persistent obstacle to development.The surplus of low and mid-end capacity and cut-throat competition have long been challenges for the "non-ferrous industry" beyond the electrolytic aluminum sector. In recent years, this has rapidly expanded into high-end fields. Most notably, there has been excessive growth in smelting and processing capacity in the intermediate stages, with provinces and enterprises engaging in unhealthy competition, leading to an oversupply of smelting and processing capacity in certain areas. According to statistics, since 2020, China has added over 3.7 million mt of copper smelting capacity, representing an increase of approximately 30%. The total national capacity has surpassed 16 million mt, exceeding the domestic demand for 14.5 million mt of copper cathode in 2024 and far outstripping the domestic copper concentrate supply capacity (with a self-sufficiency rate of less than 20% in 2024). The rapid growth in capacity has caused a continuous decline in copper concentrate treatment charges (TCs), which fell below -$45/mt by April 2025, a nearly 250% drop from the TCs of nearly $100 in 2023. This means that processing is now being done at a loss, and the copper smelting industry as a whole is operating at a deficit. Without urgent intervention, the industry will struggle to achieve high-quality development.

China's Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Industry

Four Pillars for High-Quality Development

In the face of changing circumstances, China's non-ferrous metal mining industry must adhere to a "four-pillar" approach, with innovation as the engine, green development as the foundation, digital intelligence as the means, and mutual benefit as the goal, to build a new pattern of high-quality development.

Pillar 1: Innovation as the Engine, Strengthening National Resource Security.General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "mineral resources are an important material foundation for economic and social development." Therefore, industry enterprises should prioritize "mineral exploration breakthroughs" as a core strategic task, focusing on strategic mineral resources such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and rare earths. Through dual-driven innovation in science, technology, and institutional mechanisms, significant breakthroughs in exploration and development should be achieved, elevating the enhancement of resource security capabilities to a strategic level that safeguards the security of the national industry chain and supply chain and strengthens strategic bargaining power, thereby providing solid mineral resource support for building a new development pattern.

Pillar 2: Green Development as the Foundation, Reshaping the Value Logic of Mining.Adhering to the principle of "ecological priority and green development," new paths for "zero-carbon mines" should be explored, focusing on green mine construction, ecological restoration, and comprehensive utilization of waste and tailings. Demonstration projects for "zero-carbon and zero-waste mines" should be established to gradually achieve sustainable, low-carbon development in the non-ferrous metal mining industry.

Pillar 3: Digital Intelligence as the Means, Achieving "Dual-Chain Integration" of Scientific and Technological Innovation and Industrial Transformation.Platforms should be built and institutional mechanisms improved to strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in innovation, with a focus on advancing in three key areas: scientific and technological breakthroughs, industrial transformation, and digital empowerment. In the technology sector, breakthroughs will be made in key technologies such as intelligent exploration systems (AI geological modeling), ultra-deep well, deep-sea, and deep-space mining robots, as well as CO2 mineralization and sequestration technology. On the industrial side, efforts will be made to promote collaboration among mining industry, academia, and research institutions, as well as joint mining and smelting operations. Meanwhile, technologies such as 5G and big data will be integrated to build an intelligent management and control platform, achieving full-process digital upgrading of mine exploration, production, and management, and comprehensively enhancing the efficiency of resource development and utilization, as well as management standards. We aim to make the "mine brain" smarter and the "mining backbone" stronger.

Driver 4: Adopting a win-win philosophy to pioneer a new paradigm for international mining cooperation. Currently, Chinese non-ferrous metal enterprises' overseas cooperation is transitioning from "resource cooperation" to a stage of "technological symbiosis" and "cultural resonance" that can better win the long-term trust of partner countries. As Chinese enterprises "go global," while engaging in resource cooperation in resource-rich countries, they also provide "Chinese solutions" through the flexible implementation of "China speed," optimizing resource integration capabilities, and deeply aligning talent cultivation with industrial needs. For example, conducting joint experiments and technological breakthroughs in green metallurgy and new energy materials in Indonesia; investing in community hospitals and vocational training centers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); and collaborating on the development of seawater lithium extraction technology in Chile. Through "shared benefits," "shared responsibilities," "technological symbiosis," and "cultural resonance," we will promote win-win international mining cooperation.

In summary, we will drive technological transformation through innovation, solidify the foundation for development through green practices, empower industrial upgrading through digital intelligence, and pioneer a new global paradigm through win-win cooperation, making new and greater contributions to the construction of China as a powerhouse in non-ferrous metal mining and the sustainable development of the global mining industry.