China's Tungsten Ore Resource Reserves Increased by 1.4% in 2017

On July 10, the Ministry of Natural Resources held a press conference on the 2017 National Mineral Resources Reserves. At the meeting, in 2017, China's metal minerals found a general increase in resource reserves, of which tungsten ore increased by 1.4%. According to the China Mineral Resources Report 2017, as of the end of 2016, China's tungsten mines have identified 10.16 million tons of resources.

With the approval of the State Council, natural gas hydrates were classified as new minerals in 2017, and by the end of 2017, China had found 173 minerals. According to the major categories of minerals, there are currently 13 kinds of energy minerals, 59 kinds of metal minerals, 95 kinds of non-metallic minerals, and 6 kinds of water and gas minerals. There are 162 minerals and 230 sub-minerals discovered and found in the country. Compared with the previous year, the 215 sub-minerals reported in this summary have identified 118 resource reserves growth, 40 declines, and 57 unchanged.

Among them, energy mineral reserves increased mostly: shale gas increased significantly, oil and natural gas grew slowly, coalbed methane decreased; metal minerals found that resource reserves generally increased: ferrous metal minerals increased in different degrees, non-ferrous metal minerals increased slightly, precious metal minerals increased Larger; non-metallic minerals in fluorite and graphite have a larger increase in resource reserves, while potassium salts continue to decline.

Among the ferrous metals, the proven reserves of manganese ore in 2017 increased by 19.1%, and the average annual growth rate in the past five years exceeded 10.0%. In 2017, the newly discovered manganese ore exploration identified 280 million tons of resources. In the past five years, the newly discovered resources have been identified as 880 million tons. In 2017, iron ore mines identified resource reserves increased by 1.0% and chromite ore decreased by 1.1%.

Among the non-ferrous metal minerals, the proven reserves of nickel ore and mercury mines in 2017 have remained basically unchanged, and others have increased, including copper, lead, zinc, bauxite, magnesium, molybdenum, tantalum and tantalum. The increase was between 4.0% and 7.0%, and the cobalt, tungsten and tin mines were 2.3%, 1.4% and 1.1%, respectively.

Among the precious metal minerals, the 2017 gold mines identified resource reserves increased by 8.5% and silver mines by 14.8%. In the past five years, the cumulative exploration of gold mines has newly identified 5,242 tons of resource reserves and 107,000 tons of silver mines. In 2017, the gold deposits were newly identified with a proven resource reserve of 1,104 tons. The newly added gold mines with a total area of more than 100 tons include the Xiling Gold Mine (377 tons) in the Sanshandao Mining Area of Laizhou City, Shandong Province and the Heqing Beijiao Gold Mine in Yunnan Province. 114 tons).

The “three rare” (rare, rare earth and rare) metal minerals have found most of the increase in resource reserves in 2017, and the identified reserves of antimony and antimony ore have increased significantly. However, lithium ore and zirconium have grown slowly, at only 0.6% and 0.2%.

Changes in the reserves of 24 strategic mineral resources: In the past five years, the strategic mineral resources reserves required for new energy and emerging industries in China have grown rapidly. Shale gas reserves have grown from scratch, and so far the accumulated proven geological reserves have exceeded one trillion cubic meters. Compared with the end of 2012, in addition to individual minerals, China’s main strategic mineral resources reserves have increased at the end of 2017, especially crystalline graphite (93.7%), gold ore (61.0%), tungsten ore (47.9%), Strategic minerals such as molybdenum ore (41.0%), antimony ore (34.2%) and bauxite (33.2%) increased by more than 30%, natural gas (26.1%), phosphate rock (26.0%), and nickel ore (22.2%). Copper ore (17.4%), coal (17.3%) and fluorite (15.2%) increased significantly.

At present, the situation of mineral resources in China: the national conditions of mineral resources have not changed, the important status of mineral resources has not changed, the constraints on resources and environment have not changed, the supply situation of mineral resources is very severe, and the task is very arduous. First, most mineral resources in recent years have found that resource reserves have maintained a growth trend, but the growth rate has slowed down markedly, and the growth momentum is insufficient. Second, the development of mineral resources has supported economic and social development, but many foreign minerals have been increasing in dependence on foreign countries, and import costs have increased. Third, the price of mineral products bottomed out, but the enthusiasm for exploration and development of social investment is not high; Fourth, the level of development and utilization of mineral resources has increased, but the development imbalance is not sufficient, and the level of mine construction is uneven.

According to the China Mineral Resources Report 2017, China's strategic mineral growth was obvious in 2016. By the end of 2016, the tungsten mine had identified 10.16 million tons of resources, and in 2016, it added 603,100 tons of tungsten ore, an increase of 6.0%. Tungsten mine resources 2,000 meters with shallow potential evaluation results: the prospecting potential is huge, the predicted resource is 29.731 million tons, the current resource identification rate is 301,000 tons. According to the National Mineral Resources Planning (2016-2020), we strive to achieve a production capacity of about 50% in tungsten and other resource bases by 2020.