Recently, a reporter from Jiandao Network learned from a regular press conference of the Ministry of Natural Resources that according to the 2022 statistics of China's mineral resource reserves, nearly 40% of the 163 mineral types with confirmed mineral resource reserves have increased in reserves. The reserves of strategic emerging minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel increased by 57%, 14.5%, and 3% year-on-year, respectively.

Bo Zhiping, Director of the Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, introduced that lithium is known as a green energy metal and white petroleum, widely used in energy storage, chemical industry, medicine, metallurgy, electronic industry, and other fields. With the global green and low-carbon transformation and the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the strategic position of lithium resources is becoming increasingly prominent. Countries have included lithium in their key mineral catalogs, paying high attention to the safety of lithium resource supply.

Bo Zhiping said that China is rich in lithium minerals, including salt lake brine lithium minerals, Spodumene minerals and lepidolite minerals, but the overall grade is low and there are few high-quality lithium resources, which are mainly distributed in four provinces (regions), including Jiangxi, Qinghai, Sichuan and Tibet, and a small amount in Henan and Xinjiang.

According to 2022 statistical data, Jiangxi's lithium ore reserves exceed those of Qinghai and Sichuan, ranking first in China and accounting for 40% of China's total. The increase in lithium ore reserves in China in 2022 is mainly in Jiangxi, accounting for 94.5% of the increase, coming from two lithium mines in Yichun City, Jiangxi.

Bo Zhiping stated that the main type of Yichun lithium deposit is lithium mica type, mostly low-grade lithium bearing ceramic clay ore. Due to the thin covering layer, most of the mining methods are open-pit mining. With the improvement of lithium mica extraction technology, costs have significantly decreased, and the rise of the lithium-ion new energy industry has also led to an increase in demand for lithium mines. The market development willingness has significantly increased, and Yichun's lithium mines have a significant advantage in rapidly releasing lithium resource supply increment in China. However, with the rapid growth of the development and utilization scale of lithium containing ceramic clay mines, the output of feldspar powder and lithium slag will increase significantly. Scientific disposal and comprehensive utilization of feldspar powder and lithium slag have become issues that need special attention and solution for the development of the local lithium battery new energy industry.

Reserves of other mineral resources

According to the 2022 statistical data, in terms of oil, gas and minerals, the remaining technically recoverable reserves in 2022 have increased by varying degrees, with oil increasing by 3.2% year-on-year; Natural gas increased by 3.6% year-on-year; Shale gas increased by 3.0% year on year; Coalbed methane is basically the same as last year. In 2022, there will be 3 oil and gas fields with large new Oil reserves; Six oil and gas fields have added large natural gas reserves.

In terms of non oil and gas minerals, the reserves of bulk minerals such as copper, lead, and zinc increased by 16.7%, 7.1%, and 4.2% respectively year-on-year; The reserves of rare metals such as beryllium, germanium, and gallium increased by 11.7%, 7.9%, and 16.5% year-on-year, respectively; Gold mines increased by 5.5% year-on-year; Among non-metals, ordinary fluorite and crystalline graphite increased by 27.8% and 3.5% year-on-year.Editor/Ma Xue