The Report of China Mineral Resource Reserves, 2018

Recently, The Report of China Mineral Resources (2018)which released by Ministry of Natural Resources mainly covers the information about China Mineral Resources in 2017.

By the end of 2017, a total of 173 kinds of minerals were discovered in China, of which natural gas hydrate was a new one in that year. The identified reserves and resources of major minerals, such as coal, oil, natural gas, manganese, gold and graphite demonstrated an evident growth. The reviewed and filed reports on mineral resources and reserves increased slightly over the previous year, and new progress was made in the evaluation of the potential of mineral resources such as oil, natural gas, manganese, lead, zinc, lithium and graphite.

1. Reserves and resources

1.1. Newly-discovered mineral: natural gas hydrate

According to the relevant provisions of theDetailed Rules for the Implementation of the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China, the Ministry of Land and Resources announced the discovery of a new kind of mineral resources on November 15, 2017, with the approval of the State Council. The newly-discovered mineral is natural gas hydrate,and its discovery time and place of origin are as the follows:the natural gas hydrate in China’s sea area was discovered in June 2007 for the first time in Shenhu Area of the South China Sea, whilst the natural gas hydrate in China’s land area was discovered in November 2008 for the first time in Qilian Mountain of Qinghai Province.

1.2. Growth in remaining reserves and resources

In 2017, among the major minerals, there was an increase in 42 kinds of remaining reserves and resources and a decrease in 6 kinds. Among them, the remaining technologically recoverable reserves of oil, natural gas and shale gas increased by 1.2%, 1.6% and 62.0% respectively,whilst that of the coalbed methane decreased by 9.5%. The remaining reserves and resources of coal increased by 4.3%,manganese 19.1%, copper 4.9%, bauxite 4.9%, molybdenum 4.3%, antimony 4.1%, gold 8.5%, phosphate rock 3.6%,fluorite 8.9% and crystalline graphite 22.6%, whilst potash decreased by 2.8% (Table 1).

Table 1. Remaining reserves and resources of major minerals.

1.3. Newly-discovered reserves and resources

In 2017, the new discovered geological reserves of oil amounted to 8.77×108t, natural gas 5.5538×1011m3and shale gas 3.7676×1011m3. The newly-discovered reserves and resources of coal amounted to 8.1556×1010t, manganese ore 2.82×108t, copper 4.18 ×106t, bauxite 2.92 ×108t, molybdenum 1.07 ×106t, gold 1104.35 t, phosphate rock 9.92×108t,fluorite 1.4392×107t, and crystalline graphite 6.148 ×107t(Table 2).

Table 2. Newly-discovered reserves and resources of major minerals.

2. Review and filing of reports on mineral resources &reserves

In 2017, 2604 reports on mineral resources and reserves were reviewed and filed in China (by the Ministry of Land and Resources and provincial departments of land and resources, the same below), showing an increase of 1.0% over 2016. Among them, 203 reports were about oil and gas and 2401 reports were about non-oil and gas minerals (Table 3).The Ministry of Land and Resources reviewed and filed 286 reports, increased by 40.0%. Provincial departments of land and resources reviewed and filed 2318 reports, decreased by 2.0%. Of the 103 minerals reviewed and filed in 2017, the top five minerals reported are coal (618 reports, accounting for 24%), gold (293, 11%), iron ore (217, 8%), oil (143, 5%) and cement limestone (118, 5%).

Table 3. Review and filing of reports on mineral resources and reserves in China.

In 2017, 2401 reports on non-oil and gas mineral resources and reserves were reviewed and filed, including 838 exploration reports, accounting for 34.9%, 1138 reserves verification reports, accounting for 47.4%, 183 reports on overlaid minerals, accounting for 7.6%, 146 reports on mine production and geology, accounting for 6.1%, 67 reports on mine closure, accounting for 2.8%, and 29 reports on other types, accounting for 1.2% (Table 4).

Table 4. Review and filing of reports on non-oil and gas mineral reserves.

3. Potential of mineral resources

3.1. Oil and gas

In 2017, the Ministry of Land and Resources organized the “13th Five-Year Plan” national evaluation of oil and gas.In the evaluation of the quantity and quality of oil and gas,economic and ecological environment risk assessments were carried out to comprehensively, scientifically and objectively evaluate the potential of various oil and gas in China and predict the growth trends of reserves and productivity. In 2017, the evaluation of oil and gas potential in deep waters(≥300 m) and Yin-E Basin was preliminarily completed.

There were 1.257×1011t of potential resources and 3.01×1010t of recoverable resources of oil, 9×1013m3of geological resources and 5×1013m3of recoverable resources of gas in China. Moreover, the geological resources of shale gas amounted to 1.22×1014m3, while the recoverable resources of shale gas amounted to 2.2×1013m3, which was buried at 4500 m or below. The geological resources of coalbed methane amounted to 3×1013m3, while the recoverable resources of coalbed methane amounted to 1.25×1013m3, which was buried at 2000 m or below.

According to the type and occurrence of natural gas hydrate resources, combined with geological conditions, the natural gas hydrate resources in China’s sea area were preliminarily estimated to be about 8×1010t of oil equivalent.

3.2. Non-oil and gas minerals

The potential of non-oil and gas mineral resources in China is huge, with less than 1/3 of an average discovery rate of resources buried at 2000 m or above. The evaluation results of the potential of important minerals in 2017 indicated that the lead and zinc resources are estimated to be 8.49×108t , of which the lead resource amounts to 2.56×108t and the zinc resource amounts to 5.93×108t. These lead and zinc resources are mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Yunnan, Tibet, Gansu,Qinghai, Shaanxi, etc. The manganese resource is estimated to be 4.8×109t , and is mainly distributed in Hunan, Guangxi,Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, etc. The lithium chloride(LiCl) resource is estimated to be 9.248×107t , and the lithium oxide (Li2O) resource is estimated to be 8.01 ×106t ,which is equivalent to 1.886×107t of metallic lithium.Lithium chloride is mainly distributed in Qinghai and Tibet,and lithium oxide is mainly distributed in Sichuan, Xinjiang,Jiangxi, Hunan, etc. The graphite resource buried at 500 m or above is estimated to be 2.014×109t , and is mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang,Sichuan, Shandong, etc. The bauxite-associated gallium resource in China is estimated to be 1.318×106t , and is mainly distributed in Guangxi, Henan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, etc.The indium resource associated with lead-zinc-tin is estimated to be 2.16×104t and is mainly distributed in Guangxi,Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, etc.