Vice Minister of Land and Resources Shou Jiahua announced during
a press conference Wednesday that five years of geological surveys,
costing 4.4 billion yuan (US$531.4 million), have revealed the
existence of 421 promising new potential harvesting sites.
The new findings give a further boost to China's rock-solid
mineral reserves, which are a pillar of the country's surging
economic development, officials said Wednesday.
Shou said the new findings lay a foundation to relieve the
country's thirst for minerals.
More than 15,000 geologists and other professionals participated
in the survey.
Topping the list is the discovery of new copper mines with total
reserves estimated at more than 12 million tons in northwest
China's Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region, southwest China's Yunnan
Province and Tibet,
said Shou.
Copper shortages have forced the country to spend more than US$3
billion in each of the past several years to import two-thirds of
its annual copper needs.
Also found were 38 sedimentary basins where crude oil and
natural gas may be found.
The country's total reserves of crude oil and natural gas could
amount to more than 40 billion tons in oil equivalent.
But Shao Juenian, director of the ministry's Department of
Mineral Resource Reserves, says that the discoveries must be
followed by more work, and soon.
More detailed information about the new mines, such as the
specific reserves, is needed to determine if commercial
exploitation is possible, he said.
At present, only 18.9 percent of China's solid mineral resources
can be further developed.
"While the existence of a larger part of these mineral resources
has been theoretically proven, we still don't know their economic
potential," he said.
While 148 types of solid minerals have been found in China, to
date the total reserves of only 10.6 percent of them have been
quantified.
However, Shao said the new findings provide opportunity and the
central government is steadily stepping up its efforts in the
regard. "This nationwide survey is a good example," he said.
Shao said he is on solid ground to refute some reports that the
country expects to import as much as 500 million tons of crude oil
by the year 2020.
"Our estimate of the number is roughly between 300 million and
400 million tons, and we expect it to shrink further due to
improved utilization technologies," he said.
However, China will play a bigger role in the international
mineral market. "No country can develop on its own mineral
resources only," he said.
(China Daily February 26, 2004)