China Mineral Resources has long been a window to the overall situation of China's mineral resources. The just-announced Annual Report introduced new developments in China's mineral resources exploration and development, mine geological environmental protection,
geological and mineral resources survey and evaluation , new measures in planning of mineral resources, policies and regulations of their management , reform of mining tax and fee system and ecological environmental protection, new progress mineral resources exploration and development by means of scientific and technological innovation, and theoretical research in geoscience, as well as new achievements in “the Belt and Road” cooperation of international geological and mineral resources. Considered comprehensively, what underlay these new changes were the strengthening of China's mineral resources protection, the continuous optimization of consumption structure, and the positive interaction between green and sustainable development of the industry.
Highlight 1: A new guarantee for the supply of mineral resources
The economic development situation determined the development of the mining industry. Faced with the profound adjustment of the global mining pattern, China, as a major producer and consumer of mineral products, has implemented the new development concept and comprehensively improved supply quality and efficiency based on supply-side structural reforms.
In 2017, natural gas hydrate became the 173th mineral, and important minerals such as coal, oil, natural gas, shale gas, manganese ore, gold, and graphite were detected to have increased resource reserves, the newly-exploited resources to exceeded 5 billion tons, including 3 coal fields and 2 gold mines exceeding 100 tons, 2 oil fields with proven geological reserves exceeding 100 million tons and 3 natural gas fields with scales of more than 50 billion cubic meters. By the end of April 2018, the accumulated proven geological reserves of shale gas in China had covered areas exceeding one trillion cubic meters.
According to “13th Five-Year” national oil and gas resources assessment, the predicted potential resources of the national oil were 125.7 billion tons, among them the recoverable resources 30.1 billion tons; the natural gas geological resources covered 90 trillion cubic meters, among them the recoverable resources 50 trillion cubic meters. In the light of the type and occurrence of natural gas hydrate resources, also the geological conditions, the natural gas hydrate resources in China's sea area was estimated to be about 80 billion tons of oil equivalent.
China boasted huge reserve of mineral resources apart from oil and gas, while their average identification rate within depth of 2,000 meters was only 33.3%. National assessment of important mineral resources potential in 2017 manifested that, in China, the potential resources of lead and zinc were predicted to be 849 million tons, the manganese ore resources to be 4.8 billion tons, the lithium halide resources to be 92.48 million tons, the lithium resources in hard rock to be 8.01 million tons, the graphite resources within depth of 500 meters to be 2.014 billion tons, the resources of bauxite associated with gallium to be 1.318 million tons, and the resources of lead, zinc, tin ore associated with infrared to be 21,600 tons.
In 2017, China's demand for mineral products continued to grow, and its energy consumption structure to be optimized. The fixed-asset investment in the oil and gas exploration industry began to pick up, and the supply capacity of major mineral products increased continuously. The output of primary energy, crude steel, 10 non-ferrous metals, gold and cement continued to rank first in the world. China had completed the construction of the demonstration base of the comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, released the requirements of the mining recovery ratio, concentration recovery ratio and comprehensive utilization rate of six minerals including magnesium and antimony, and published the sixth 62-item category for promoting advanced applicable technologies.
Highlight 2: New look in green development of mining
Under the guidance of President Xi Jinping's idea of ecological civilization, green mining has been lifted to a new level. Lucid water and lush mountains were invaluable assets. Green mines not only extended the service life of mines, but also brought rare opportunities for the development of other industries.
In the past year, the whole industry accelerated the research and implementation of green exploration standards. According to “Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Green Mines”, the “Green Exploration Guide” was issued to promote the adoptions of techniques as drilling instead of trenching, one base with multiple holes and one hole with many branches, combined with portable modular prospecting equipment.
Research and formulation of industrial standards of non-metals, chemicals, gold, coal, sand, onshore oil and gas, hydraulic limestone, metallurgy, non-ferrous metals, etc. were under way around the mining environment, resource development methods, comprehensive utilization of resources, energy conservation and emission reduction, technological innovation, digital mining, enterprise management and corporate image. Besides, in accordance with the principle of “being guided by policies and oriented by local areas, keeping one regulation in one area, highlighting features, being driven by innovation and playing a demonstration and leading role”, the constructions of demonstration areas have been initiated in cities and counties with relatively concentrated resources and mines, well-ordered mining industry, urgent demand for transformation and upgrade, highly motivated local governments and certain working foundations.
Up to now, a series of typical modes have been erected in aspects of efficient development of oil and gas resources, green mining of coal resources, efficient and comprehensive utilization of associated resources of metal minerals, environmental protection of chemical and non-metallic mines, modern mine operations, harmony between mining and geology and shared resource development, which played a demonstration and leading role.
Highlight 3: New measures in policies, regulations and management of mineral resources
Since last year, the Ministry has further abolished and decentralized administrative examination and approval, and carried out the clean-ups of laws, regulations, rules and normative documents of territorial resources involved in the construction of ecological civilization and review of fair competition in order to further impel reforms of streamlining administration and delegating power, strengthening regulation simultaneously and optimizing services. It also improved the “Regulations on Geological Data Management”, abolished the “Regulations on the Management of Geological Exploration Qualifications”, issued the “Opinions on Innovating Government’s Allocation of Resources” for the purpose of innovating the allocating ways of Government. In addition, it has established and improved property rights system of natural resources, given full play to the guidance and restraint of spatial planning of them, strengthened urban geological work, explored the exploitation and utilization model with systematization, industrialization, greenization for urban underground space resources. Besides, it has established systems of mining rights transfer benefits and occupation expenses, and adjusted the restoration fund of mine geological environment governance to that with management norms, unified power and responsibility and ease of use.
In the aspect of mineral resources management, the Ministry further improved the mineral resources support capacity through actively carrying out the third mid-term evaluation of the implementation of national mineral resources planning; launching a pilot program for the unified right confirming and registration of mineral reserves, establishing a mineral resource reserve system, exploring reserving mechanism in major mineral lands of nature reserves. It has also restricted the approval of applying important minerals to construction projects and improved systems of mining rights’ examination, approval, registration and management.
Highlight 4: New achievements in review of geological works and technological innovation
The level of basic review of geological works has been further enhanced, and important findings have been obtained after investigations into new areas, new strata, new fields, and new depths of oil and gas resources since last year. These works covering geological surveys for minerals apart from oil and gas in key metallogenic provinces and belts, self-contained exploration areas, important mines and large resource bases, have positioned 450 target prospecting areas and discovered 60 new mines. During this period, 1:50,000 mineral geological survey has been completed in area of 117,000 square kilometers, which was a part of the whole covered area of 3,323,900 square kilometers accounting for 33.5% of the land area; 1:1,000,000 Marine geological survey of China been accomplished and 13 types of maps such as structural maps, geological maps, and mineral maps been compiled.
Facing the country's major needs, China has fully implemented the science and technology innovation strategy of territorial resources. It Continuous innovated metallogenic theory, prospecting model and exploration method, researched and developed or integrated several geological exploration technical instruments and equipment, applied comprehensive utilization technology of mineral resources in depth and issued a recommended national standard and 35 recommended industrial standards of geology and natural resources.
Highlight 5: New developments in international cooperation in mineral resources
The Ministry of Natural Resources put the country's overall diplomatic strategy into practice, actively responded to “the Belt and Road” initiative, and comprehensively promoted bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the field of geology and mineral resources. it signed four cooperation agreements and action plans in the field of mineral resources with the Chilean Ministry of Mines, the Natural Resources Canada, the Ministry of Mines of Sudan, and the Queen's University in Canada, and initiated cooperation with developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in the fields of oil and gas resource management, shale gas exploration and development, geological environment protection. Under the framework of intergovernmental bilateral cooperation, it continued to consolidate high-level coordination mechanisms in the mining sector with Canada, Australia, South Africa, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.
China formulated and promoted “the Belt and Road” construction action plan, and actively participated in the construction from the aspects of promoting openness and cooperation of resources, strengthening policy communication, and reinforcing information sharing services. It also gave full play to its advantages in geochemistry, satellite remote sensing and aeronautical geophysical exploration, and cooperated with 23 key countries along “the Belt and Road” in substantive geological survey.
Through international communication platforms such as CHINA MINING Conference and Exhibition and China-ASEAN Mining Cooperation Forum, China further expanded mining exchanges and cooperation with relevant countries. China Enterprise Alliance of Mining International Capacity Cooperation established in September 2017 played the advantage of unity to build a comprehensive service platform for mining international capacity cooperation, which promoted policy communication, information connectivity and inter-industry collaborations. (Zhao Lei) (Translated by TLRHVC)
About CHINA MINING
Since first held in 1999, the scope and influence of CHINA MINING has grown rapidly year by year. As a global mining summit forum and exhibition, CHINA MINING Congress and Expo has become one of the world’s top mining events, and one of the world’s largest mining exploration, development and trading platforms, covering all aspects of the whole mining industry chain, including geological survey, exploration and development, mining rights trading, mining investment and financing, smelting and processing, mining techniques and equipment, mining services, etc. playing an active promotion role in creating exchange opportunities and enhancing mutual cooperation between domestic and foreign mining enterprises.
CHINA MINING Conference and Exhibition 2018 Was held at Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin in October 18-20, 2018. We invite you to join the event and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of CHINA MINING with us. For more information about CHINA MINING 2018, please visit: m.balanzskin.com.
