Bulletin of China Mineral Exploration Results in 2020

On May 11, 2021, the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the Bulletin of China Mineral Exploration Results in 2020 (Natural Resources Office [2021]No. 774) and released it on the official website of the Ministry of Natural Resources in the form of “Government Information Disclosure” to the public (http://gi.mnr.gov.cn/202105/t202 10513_2631949.html). This journal selects the mineral exploration investment and main exploration results parts for readers.

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1. Total investment of national geological exploration

In 2020, 16.161×109RMB was invested in national geological exploration (excluding data from Hong Kong SAR,Macau SAR, and Taiwan Province of China; excluding oil,natural gas, shale gas, coalbed methane and other mineral exploration investment), a year-on-year decrease of 6.1%,which indicates the continuous downward trend in recent years (Fig. 1). Total investment in 2020: 8.247×109RMB for mineral exploration, accounting for 51.0%, a year-on-year decrease of 6.3%; basic geological surveys 1.993×109RMB,accounting for 12.3%, a year-on-year decrease of 22.3%;3.451×109RMB for hydrological, environmental and geological disaster survey evaluations, accounting for 21.4%,a year-on-year decrease of 0.3%; 2.197×109RMB for geological technology and comprehensive research,accounting for 13.6%, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%;273×106RMB for geological data services and informatization, accounting for 1.7%, a year-on-year decrease of 33.1%. See Table 1 for total investment by province.

Fig. 1. Comparison of the investment in national geological exploration from 2006 to 2020.

2. Results of mineral exploration

2.1. Capital investment

In 2020, 8.247×109RMB was invested in mineral exploration, a year-on-year decrease of 6.3%. The main investment minerals are shown in Table 2.

2.2. Setting of prospecting rights

By the end of 2020, there were 9561 non-oil and gas prospecting rights within the validity period across China, a decrease of 15.9% from the end of 2019; the registered exploration area was 113800 km2, a decrease of 34.6% from the end of 2019. The changes in the number of prospecting rights setting in various provinces over the years are shown in Fig. 2. The number of prospecting rights and minerals in 2020 will be shown in Table 2.

2.3. Results of mineral exploration

There are 96 newly discovered mineral deposits in 2020,of which 29 are large-scale, 36 are medium-sized, and 31 are small-scale. The top 5 minerals in the number of newly discovered minerals are gold (7 sites), geothermal (7 sites),copper (6 sites), ceramic soil (5 sites), and cement limestone(5 sites). There are 457 continuing exploring mineral deposits in 2020, including 148 general surveys, 241 detailed investigations, and 68 exploration sites. See Table 3 for newly added inferred reserves of main minerals. See Table 4 for newly added resources explored in 2020.

Source: http://gi.mnr.gov.cn/202105/t20210513_2631949.html.

Compiled by Xi-jie Chen, Ting Jia, Li-qiong Jia.

Contact: No. 45 Fuwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100037, P.R. China. Tel: +86-10-58584239. Email: xijiechen 2020@163.com (Xi-jie Chen).

Table 1. Investments in geological exploration by the province in 2019 and 2020.

Table 2. Investment of major minerals exploration and drilling completion in 2020.

Fig. 2. Comparison of the number of solid mineral prospecting rights during 2006–2020 in China.

Table 3. Statistics on the number of national prospecting rights and minerals (by the end of 2020).

Table 3. (Continued)

Table 4. Some minerals and newly added resources explored in 2020.