Lead and zinc are widely distributed on Earth, primarily occurring in the form of sulfides and sulfates, with sphalerite and galena being the most important minerals. Lead and zinc are mainly used in industries such as machinery, metallurgy, electrical engineering, military industry, chemical processing, pharmaceuticals, and light industry, making them versatile nonferrous metal elements. [1] This article provides a basic overview of the resources and distribution of major lead-zinc deposits worldwide and in China by collecting relevant data and information. Through an analysis of resource potential, it offers several recommendations to advance exploration, development, and research efforts related to lead-zinc mineral resources.

　　1  Overview of Global Lead and Zinc Mineral Resources

　　 Worldwide lead and zinc mineral resources are widely distributed, with currently known deposits found in more than 50 countries [2]. According to statistics from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (2007–2016) [3], as of the end of 2015, the world’s identified lead resources exceeded 2 billion tons, with proven lead reserves amounting to 89 million tons (Table 1, Figure 1); zinc resources totaled 1.9 billion tons, with proven zinc reserves reaching 200 million tons (Table 2, Figure 2). The world’s major lead and zinc mining regions are located in Oceania, Asia, North America, and South America. Countries with substantial lead and zinc reserves include the United States, Australia, Bolivia, China, Peru, Mexico, India, Kazakhstan, Canada, Russia, and Ireland—collectively accounting for approximately 80% of the world’s total lead and zinc reserves as of 2015. Among these, Australia is the country with the richest lead and zinc mineral resources in the world: its lead reserves stand at 35 million tons, representing 39.32% of the global total lead reserves, while its zinc reserves amount to 63 million tons, or 31.50% of the global total zinc reserves. Together, Australia’s lead and zinc reserves account for 33.91% of the world’s total reserves.

　　 Table 1: Overview of Lead Ore Reserves in Major World Countries from 2006 to 2015 / 10,000 tons

　　 Data are sourced from the USGS: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2007–2016 [3]. In this dataset, “–” indicates no data available; global totals are rounded to the nearest integer.

　　 Figure 1: Changes in Lead Ore Reserves of Major World Countries from 2006 to 2015 / 10,000 tons

　　 Table 2: Overview of Zinc Ore Reserves in Major World Countries from 2006 to 2015 / 10,000 tons

　　 Data are sourced from the USGS: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2007–2016 [3]. In this dataset, “–” indicates no data available; global totals are rounded to the nearest integer.

　　 Figure 2: Changes in Zinc Ore Reserves of Major World Countries from 2006 to 2015 / 10,000 tons

　　2  Distribution Characteristics of Global Lead and Zinc Mineral Resources

　　 According to statistical data [2, 4–7], there are 58 ultra-large lead-zinc deposits worldwide (with combined primary metal reserves of lead and zinc exceeding 5 million tons) (Figure 3). These deposits are primarily located in countries such as Australia (10), the United States (7), Canada (6), China (5), and Kazakhstan (4). The main genetic types of these deposits include MVT-type, Sedex-type, pyrite-type, and sandstone (shale)-type deposits, which account for over 85% of the world’s total lead-zinc reserves. Other significant deposit types include hydrothermal vein-type, porphyry-type, and skarn-type deposits.

　　 Figure 3: Schematic map showing the distribution of world-class super-large lead-zinc deposits (with original metal reserves of lead + zinc exceeding 5 million tons) (data cited from [2]).

　　 Australia's Concentrated Lead-Zinc Mining Area:

　　 ① The McArthur River lead-zinc deposit, located on the eastern margin of the Bathurst Trough, boasts reserves totaling 25.8 million tons, with an average grade of 13.6% Pb+Zn; ② The Broken Hill mineral district holds lead-zinc reserves of at least 55 million tons, with an average grade of 25% Pb+Zn; ③ The Mount Isa periphery contains at least six giant-to-large polymetallic deposits, with lead-zinc reserves amounting to 11.69 million tons and an average grade of 13.2% Pb+Zn; ④ At least four large lead-zinc deposits have been discovered in the Reid Volcanic Belt on Tasmania Island, with total lead-zinc reserves reaching 8.6 million tons.

　　 North American Lead-Zinc Mining Concentration Area:

　　 ① The Red Dog mine field in northwestern Alaska, USA, holds 6.67 million tons of Pb with an average grade of 4.3%, and 24.95 million tons of Zn with an average grade of 16.1%. ② The Coeur d'Alene silver-lead-zinc belt in the U.S. contains over 10 million tons of lead and zinc reserves, with an average Pb+Zn grade of 11.8%. ③ Another major lead-zinc mining district in North America is the Mississippi River ore district. ④ The Kidd Creek deposit in Canada has reserves of 9.52 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average Pb+Zn grade of 6.42%. ⑤ The Sullivan lead-zinc mine in Canada holds reserves exceeding 20.83 million tons, with an average Pb+Zn grade of 11.9%. ⑥ In the Selwyn Basin of Yukon, Canada, lead-zinc ore reserves amount to 900 million tons. At the Howards Pass mine area on the eastern edge of the basin, lead-zinc reserves total 8.5 million tons, with an average Pb+Zn grade of 7.7%. ⑦ The Bathurst-Newcastle ore district in the Appalachian region of Canada has more than 30 known deposits. Among them, the Brunswick No. 12 deposit boasts lead-zinc reserves exceeding 10.7 million tons, with an average Pb+Zn grade of 13%. The Newfoundland Island ore belt comprises around 100 deposits, mostly small to medium-sized. Notably, the Buchans deposit has reserves of 234,000 tons of Pb with an average grade of 1.3% and 1.08 million tons of Zn with an average grade of 6%. ⑧ The Crandon deposit in the Superior structural province holds zinc reserves of 3.9 million tons, with an average grade of 6.5%. ⑨ The Flin Flon deposit in the Amisk ore belt has zinc reserves of 2.48 million tons, with an average grade of 4.25%.

　　 South American Lead-Zinc Mining Concentration Area:

　　 ① The San Gregorio replacement-type lead-zinc deposit in Peru holds reserves of 6.93 million tons, with an average grade of 9.52% for Pb+Zn; ② The Antamina skarn-type lead-zinc deposit in Peru holds reserves of 5.75 million tons, with an average grade of 10.3% for Pb+Zn; ③ The San Cristobal hydrothermal-type lead-zinc deposit in Bolivia holds reserves of 5.49 million tons, with an average grade of 2.12% for Pb+Zn; ④ The Vazante non-sulfide-type lead-zinc deposit in Brazil holds reserves of 5.13 million tons, with an average grade of 18% for Pb+Zn.

　　 Central Asia Lead-Zinc Ore Concentration Area:

　　 The lead-zinc deposits in Central Asia are mainly concentrated in Kazakhstan, where three major ore-forming belts stand out. ① The Altai copper-lead-zinc ore belt is home to several large polymetallic deposits. Among them, the Leninogorsk deposit boasts lead and zinc reserves totaling 3.8 million tons, with grades of 15.2% Pb and 28.8% Zn in dense massive ores, and 2.5% Pb and 5.1% Zn in disseminated ores. The Zhuliannov ore field holds lead and zinc reserves exceeding 5 million tons, with primary ore grades of 1.7% Pb and 2.9% Zn. ② In the eastern Junggar Alatau mining district, more than ten lead-zinc deposits have been discovered. One of these ore belts stretches 150 km long and 20–50 km wide; the Czechli deposit contains lead and zinc reserves of 5.5 million tons, with an average grade of 11% for Pb+Zn. ③ Along the southwestern margin, the Karatau polymetallic ore belt extends over 600 km in length and tens of kilometers in width, hosting numerous significant deposits. Among them, the Shalkya super-large lead-zinc deposit has reserves of 12.39 million tons, with an average grade of 4.13% for Pb+Zn.

　　 East Asia Lead-Zinc Mineral Concentration Area:

　　 ① The Komdok lead-zinc deposit in North Korea has reserves of 70 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average grade of 7% to 10% for Pb+Zn; ② The Jinding lead-zinc deposit in Yunnan, China, has reserves of 16.1 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average grade of 8.44% for Pb+Zn; ③ The Fan Kou MVT-type lead-zinc deposit in Guangdong, China, has reserves of 8.29 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average grade of 14.01% for Pb+Zn; ④ The Changba lead-zinc deposit in Gansu, China, has reserves of 7.92 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average grade of 8.46% for Pb+Zn; ⑤ The Dongshengmiao lead-zinc deposit in Inner Mongolia, China, has reserves of 6.26 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average grade of 3.25% for Pb+Zn; ⑥ The Hokuroku Region lead-zinc deposit in Japan has reserves of 6.63 million tons of lead and zinc, with an average grade of 6.5% for Pb+Zn.

　　3  Overview of China's Lead and Zinc Mineral Resources

　　 China boasts relatively abundant lead and zinc mineral resources. According to the China Mineral Resources Report (2015) [8], as of the end of 2014, the nation had identified total lead reserves of 73.849 million tons and zinc reserves of 144.861 million tons, representing increases of 9.6% and 5.5%, respectively, compared to 2013 (Table 3, Figure 3). China’s lead and zinc deposits are characterized by a large number of ore-forming sites and a dispersed distribution of resources. Since becoming the world’s second-largest producer of lead and zinc in 1994, with the rapid development of the national economy, the demand for these resources has continued to rise. However, after years of mining, most mines have seen their resources gradually depleted, leading to a year-on-year decline in production. Faced with the increasingly acute supply-demand imbalance in lead and zinc minerals, achieving breakthroughs in exploration as soon as possible has become a major mission for geological work under the new circumstances. Over the past decade or so, the government has attached great importance to exploration efforts, launching special exploration initiatives such as the “National Special Program for Exploring Substitute Resources in Critical Mines” and the “Pilot Projects for Large-Scale Land and Resource Surveys.” With rapid advances in geological science and technology and ever-evolving theoretical frameworks, combined use of new technologies and methods has made deep-prospecting feasible—and has now become an indispensable path toward achieving exploration breakthroughs. The results of these specialized exploration programs demonstrate significant success in deep-prospecting efforts, highlighting China’s enormous exploration potential [1].

　　 Table 3: Overview of Proven Reserves of Lead and Zinc Mineral Resources in China (2006–2014) / (in thousands of tons of metal)

　　 Data sourced from the Ministry of Natural Resources: China Mineral Resources Report (2011–2015) [8].

　　 Figure 3: Changes in Proven Reserves from 2006 to 2014 (in 10,000 tons of metal)

　　 The main characteristics of China’s lead and zinc mineral resources are as follows: ① There are many small mines but few large ones; large lead deposits account for only 1.5% of all lead deposits, while large zinc deposits account for about 4.5% of all zinc deposits. ② There are more low-grade ores than high-grade ones; among the lead resources (331 category), those with a grade exceeding 3% account for only about one-third of the total. The grade of zinc resources is relatively slightly higher, yet deposits with a zinc grade below 4% still make up more than 35%. ③ The mineable life of both lead and zinc reserves—and their proven reserves—is somewhat insufficient: lead reserves have an exploitable lifespan of less than four years, while zinc reserves last less than five years. The proven reserves of lead can sustain mining for 5.6 years, and those of zinc for 7.4 years; there is a relative shortage of reserve resources, leaving insufficient reserves available for planning and utilization. ④ The mines in China’s lead and zinc industry are predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises. ⑤ With the rapid expansion of China’s lead and zinc smelting capacity, imports of lead and zinc raw materials have also increased rapidly.

　　4  Distribution Characteristics of Lead and Zinc Mineral Resources in China

　　 Lead-zinc deposits represent one of China's advantageous mineral resources. The major lead-zinc mining areas in China are located in provinces and autonomous regions including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Prominent ore deposits include Fan’kou in Guangdong, Dachang in Guangxi, Lengshuikeng in Jiangxi, Qixia Mountain in Jiangsu, Shuikoushan in Hunan, Jinding in Yunnan, Dalangzi in Sichuan, Changba in Gansu, Keketale in Xinjiang, Xitie Shan in Qinghai, and Dongshengmiao in Inner Mongolia. The distribution of lead-zinc deposits is relatively concentrated in the Nanling region, the Sanjiang region, the Qinling-Qilian Mountains region, and the Langshan-Zhertaite region. A key feature of the spatial distribution of China’s lead-zinc deposits is their unevenness—specifically, they exhibit a clustered and zonal distribution pattern (Figure 4). According to Zhu Yusheng (2004), China can be divided into 16 metallogenic provinces, among which lead-zinc deposits are predominantly concentrated in the South China Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Upper Yangtze Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Lower Yangtze Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Sanjiang Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Inner Mongolia-Daxinganling Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Qinling-Dabie Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Qilian Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Northern Margin of the North China Craton Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, the Northern Tianshan Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province, and the Altai-Junghar Lead-Zinc Metallogenic Province (Figure 4).

　　 Figure 4: Simplified Map of China’s Lead-Zinc Mineralization Provinces and Distribution of Major Lead-Zinc Mineral Resources (Revised based on [9])

　　 Since China launched the Strategic Action for Mineral Exploration Breakthrough in 2011, significant achievements have been made over the past three years. From 2011 to 2013, China’s cumulative新增 lead and zinc resource reserves exceeded 50 million tons, representing an increase of 19.7% compared to the end of 2010. During the same period, a total of 154 new mineral deposits were discovered through exploration for lead and zinc—9 of them being large-scale or larger, and 52 classified as medium-sized. In particular, the Huayuan-Fenghuang area of Hunan Province has initially developed into a lead-zinc resource base with reserves reaching tens of millions of tons. Additionally, promising prospects exist for the establishment of several non-ferrous metal bases in regions such as Luziyuan in Zhenkang, Yunnan; Zhaxikang in Tibet; Ulagantash around the southwestern Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang; Huohuoyun in Xinjiang; Qimantage in Qinghai; and the southern foothills of the Daxing'anling Mountains in Inner Mongolia [10]. According to data released by the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2014 [8], in 2013 alone, China identified 16 new large- and medium-sized zinc deposits, adding 11.832 million tons of zinc reserves. These figures clearly demonstrate China’s advantages in lead and zinc resources as well as its enormous potential for further mineral exploration.

　　5  Conclusion

　　1 From a global perspective, lead and zinc mineral resources are widely distributed around the world, and their importance to global industrial development is evident. Data show that over the past decade, the world’s reserves of lead and zinc have grown significantly, and major industrial countries have gradually stepped up their exploration efforts for these minerals. However, in the past two to three years, due to factors such as economic downturns in major industrial nations and a sluggish global mining market, global lead and zinc production has declined. On the other hand, with the expansion of the automotive market and the emergence of new sectors, demand for lead and zinc resources still has room to grow, making the prospects for exploration, development, and application relatively optimistic.

　　2 China has become a major global producer of lead and zinc resources and a leading exporter of these resources. As revealed by the overview and distribution characteristics of China’s lead and zinc mineral resources, there is enormous potential for further exploration and discovery of such resources in China. However, at present, the overall level of exploration and development of lead and zinc resources still exhibits an uneven pattern, with higher activity in eastern regions and lower activity in western regions. It is therefore of great significance to promote, in a rational and effective manner, breakthroughs in exploration efforts and related scientific research on lead and zinc resources, and to intensify exploration and development activities, so as to ensure that China’s lead and zinc resources are primarily sourced domestically and to enhance the country’s resource security.

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