BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- From the beginning of 2021 to the first half of 2025, 38 new mineral deposits were discovered across the country, an increase of over 30 percent year-on-year. Among them, significant breakthroughs were made in the exploration of strategic metals such as uranium, rubidium, gold, cobalt and manganese, and a number of large, super-large and extra-large mineral deposits were newly discovered.
According to the data released by the Office of the New Round of Mineral Prospecting Breakthrough Strategy Action of the Ministry of Natural Resources on July 10th, these new discoveries include: the discovery of the province's first super-large uranium mine in Heilongjiang Province; in Xinglong County, Hebei Province, the amount of rubidium resources has increased by 3.37 million tons, reaching a super-large scale, further consolidating China's leading position in rubidium mining; in Longhua County, Hebei Province, the amount of cobalt resources has increased by 27,000 tons, reaching a large scale; in Songtao Miao Autonomous County, Guizhou Province, the amount of manganese resources has increased by 22.85 million tons, reaching a large scale; in Tektik County, Xinjiang, the amount of gold resources has increased by 81 tons, with a total of nearly 100 tons identified, reaching an ultra-large scale.
Apart from uranium, gold, cobalt and manganese which are familiar to the public, rubidium is a rare metallic element that is widely used in high-tech fields such as aerospace, national defense, information technology, biomedicine and new energy. The melting point and boiling point of rubidium are both relatively low, and this property may enable the direct conversion of thermal energy into electrical energy.
According to preliminary statistics, in the first half of the year, the total investment in non-oil mineral exploration across the country reached 6.993 billion yuan, an increase of 23.9% year-on-year. Among this, social funds amounted to 3.359 billion yuan, up 28.2% year-on-year, accounting for 48.0% of the total investment in mineral exploration, indicating that enterprises' enthusiasm for mineral exploration has been continuously increasing; central and local fiscal funds reached 3.634 billion yuan, up 20.1% year-on-year. From the perspective of mineral types, the exploration investment in tin, bauxite, tungsten, copper, phosphorus and other minerals increased by more than 50% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, the natural resources department has further increased the supply of exploration rights, with 318 strategic mineral exploration rights released in the first half of the year.
A super-large gold mine in Xinjiang (Photo provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources)