In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, adopted Agenda 21—a comprehensive action agenda for humanity’s environmental and developmental challenges spanning the turn of the century. In October 1993, Beijing hosted an international symposium on “China’s Agenda 21.” The document adopted the following year, “China’s Agenda 21—The White Paper on China’s Population, Environment, and Development in the 21st Century,” became a guiding document for China’s future sustainable development. In October 1996, the “Second High-Level Roundtable on China’s Agenda 21” was held in Beijing. At the opening ceremony of the conference, Vice Premier Zou Jiahua pointed out: “Sustainable development is the eternal theme of human social progress and development.”
With the rapid development of the national economy, the tightening supply of mineral resources has increasingly become a significant constraint on the sustained and healthy development of the economy, drawing high attention from the entire society—especially from central leaders. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for continued and deeper implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development. In line with the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development—“people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable development”—the central government has further proposed building a resource-conserving society and vigorously developing a circular economy.
Currently, China’s primary sources of primary energy, industrial raw materials, and agricultural production inputs are mineral resources. In today’s era of economic globalization, China will continue to base its economic development on its own mineral resources. The key to ensuring a stable supply of these resources lies in pursuing a path of sustainable development. The 21st century represents a critical opportunity for China to further implement its sustainable development strategy; therefore, the rational exploration and efficient utilization of mineral resources will undoubtedly become an important component of China’s sustainable development agenda.
    I. Basic Characteristics of China’s Mineral Resources
For more than 50 years, mineral exploration efforts have achieved remarkable accomplishments, identifying vast reserves of mineral resources for the country and essentially ensuring that the needs of national economic development are met. China has now become one of the few resource-rich countries in the world with abundant total mineral resources and a relatively complete range of mineral types. At the same time, China has also made outstanding achievements in the exploitation and utilization of its mineral resources, and has become one of the world’s major mining powers. The nation’s annual total ore production currently stands at 5 billion tons, of which state-owned mines exploit and utilize 150 different mineral types, producing approximately 2 billion tons of ore per year (excluding oil and natural gas). Non-state-owned small-scale mines exploit and utilize 179 (sub-)mineral types, with an annual ore output of about 3 billion tons. Crude oil production amounts to 167 million tons. China now ranks among the world’s top producers of 10 key minerals, including crude oil, coal, cement, crude steel, phosphate rock, and pyrite. The overall scale of solid mineral development in China now ranks second in the world.
After years of development, China’s mineral resources as a whole possess both advantages and disadvantages. Their fundamental characteristics are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
1. The country boasts abundant total mineral resources and a wide variety of minerals, yet per capita ownership is relatively low.
As of the end of 2005, China had discovered 171 types of minerals, with reserves confirmed for 159 of them. Among these, there are 10 energy minerals, 54 metallic minerals, 92 non-metallic minerals, and 3 water and gas minerals. More than 200,000 mineral deposits and occurrences have been identified, of which over 18,000 have been confirmed to have quantified reserves. Over 20 minerals—including coal, rare earths, tungsten, tin, tantalum, vanadium, antimony, magnesite, titanium, fluorite, barite, graphite, bentonite, talc, mirabilite, and gypsum—possess clear advantages in both quantity and quality, giving them strong international competitiveness. However, China’s per capita mineral resource endowment is relatively low, standing at only 58% of the global average and ranking 53rd worldwide.
2. Most mineral resources are of poor quality and have weak international competitiveness.
Compared with major mineral-resource countries abroad, the quality of China’s mineral resources is far from ideal. Taking into account comprehensive factors such as ore grade, ore type, and ore processing and metallurgical performance, the quality of China’s gold deposits, potash salts, petroleum, lead deposits, and zinc deposits is rated as medium; while the quality of coal, iron ore, manganese ore, copper deposits, bauxite, sulfur deposits, and phosphate deposits ranks among the worst. Overall, the quality of China’s bulk minerals—especially those that are in short supply—is relatively poor, making them less competitive in the international market and thereby restricting their development and utilization.
3. There are many complex coexisting (or associated) minerals, which greatly increase the technical challenges involved in their exploration and development.
According to statistics, China has more than 80 types of coexisting (or associated) mineral resources, with non-ferrous metals being the most common. For example, lead-zinc deposits contain over 50 coexisting (or associated) components; among them, silver from lead-zinc ores alone accounts for 60% of the nation’s total silver reserves and 70% of its production. There are more than ten large- and extra-large copper deposits that occur in association with other minerals, and 76% of the nation’s associated gold and 32.5% of its associated silver come from these copper deposits. Although coexisting (or associated) minerals have great potential value—sometimes even exceeding that of their primary components—their exploitation and utilization pose significant technical challenges, involve complex beneficiation and smelting processes, and entail high costs, thus resulting in low competitiveness.
4. There are many medium- and small-sized mines and underground mines, but few large- and extra-large-scale mines and open-pit mines, which severely hinders the economies of scale in mineral development.
In general, China has a large number of mineral resource deposits, but most individual deposits are relatively small in scale. Large and extra-large deposits are predominantly found for minerals such as tungsten, aluminum, antimony, lead-zinc, nickel, rare earth elements, siderite, and graphite. As for some key pillar minerals—such as iron, copper, aluminum, gold, and oil and gas—most deposits are medium- and small-sized, which is not conducive to large-scale development. It is difficult for any single deposit to achieve substantial production levels, thereby affecting the overall efficiency of resource exploitation. To date, China has yet to discover any exceptionally large, high-grade iron ore deposits (on the order of 500 million tons) or high-grade copper ore deposits (on the order of 5 million tons). In contrast, overseas, there are more than 60 super-large copper deposits with proven metal reserves exceeding 10 million tons, half of which have reserves surpassing 10 million tons. Currently, among the 329 copper mines already being exploited in China, annual output totals only 334,000 tons. Globally, there are 48 super-large gold deposits with reserves exceeding 200 tons; in China, however, there are only seven sites where gold deposits exceed 60 tons. Moreover, the number of open-pit mining sites suitable for extraction is limited. For instance, the proportion of coal reserves that can be mined via open-pit methods accounts for only 7%, whereas in the U.S. and Australia, open-pit mining accounts for 60% and 70% of total production, respectively. Consequently, factors such as production efficiency, costs, and recovery rates are hard to match those achieved abroad. Among metallic minerals, over 70% of China’s bauxite, more than 80% of its copper deposits, and over 90% of its nickel deposits must be mined underground. Furthermore, only 15% of sulfur-iron ore deposits nationwide can be mined via open-pit methods. Additionally, given the relatively small size of most deposits and the predominance of underground mining, it is impossible to achieve large-scale development. All these factors significantly contribute to the low efficiency and economic returns of China’s mineral resource exploitation.
5. Mineral resources are unevenly distributed geographically, with production areas mismatched to processing and consumption centers.
Due to differing geological and mineralization conditions, some of China’s key mineral resources are particularly concentrated in certain regions. Ninety percent of the country’s identified coal reserves are concentrated in North China, Northwest China, and Southwest China—regions whose industrial output accounts for less than 30% of the nation’s total industrial output. In contrast, the northeastern, eastern, and central-southern regions, which hold only about 10% of the nation’s coal resources, contribute more than 70% of the nation’s industrial output. Seventy percent of the nation’s identified phosphate reserves are concentrated in the four provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Hubei; iron ore deposits are primarily located in provinces such as Liaoning, Hebei, Sichuan, and Shanxi. The concentration of iron ore deposits in Liaoning, Hebei, Sichuan, and Shanxi also imposes certain limitations on their exploitation and development. The pattern of transporting coal from north to south, coal from west to east, electricity from west to east, and phosphates from south to north is set to persist for the long term.
Moreover, in recent years, a number of large and extra-large mining areas have been discovered in the remote western regions. These areas also present significant development challenges. Given the uneven distribution of mineral resources, it has become inevitable that China’s future mining development strategy will shift its focus westward.
    II. Challenges Facing the Sustainable Development of Mineral Resources
1. Reserve reserves of mineral resources
China’s national economy continues to develop rapidly, and the rate of mineral resource consumption has also been increasing almost in tandem with the scale of the economy. As a result, existing mineral reserves are being depleted at an accelerated pace, while the growth rate of reserve resources is already lagging behind the consumption rate. Newly discovered mineral reserves are insufficient to offset the annual depletion, leaving the entire mining industry facing a critical shortage of reserve resources. Consequently, the extent to which mineral resources can support society is on a downward trend. According to the experience of some developed countries, the period when per capita GDP ranges between US$800 and US$3,000 is precisely the phase of highest intensity in mineral consumption. China is currently in this very stage, and therefore its mineral production must increase significantly to meet the needs of national development. According to projections, among the 45 minerals that play a crucial supporting role in national development, more than ten minerals currently have proven reserves that fall short of meeting national development requirements. By 2010, over half of these minerals will no longer be able to satisfy demand, and by 2020, only six minerals will still be able to meet the required levels.
2. Random and excessive mining has led to the deterioration of the geological environment.
In the mid-1960s, the policy of "large mines to be fully developed, small mines to be liberalized, water resources to be swiftly utilized, and state, collective, and individual entities all joining forces" was introduced. This policy greatly fueled a widespread practice of indiscriminate and reckless mining across the country, leading to severe resource wastage and environmental damage. As a result, just a few years later, the state was compelled to adopt stringent measures to shut down these small mines—and even today, it remains impossible to completely eradicate this phenomenon. Particularly in regions rich in mineral resources, alongside the operations of large and medium-sized state-owned mining enterprises, it has become increasingly common for local residents to engage in individual mining activities. The consequence has been extensive land subsidence, sometimes even triggering minor earthquakes, disrupting the original ecological balance, inflicting heavy losses on humanity, and directly endangering human lives.
3. Mineral resources are severely wasted, and the resource recovery rate is low.
First, the recovery rate for mineral extraction and beneficiation is low. Currently, China’s overall recovery rate for mineral resources stands at only 30%, 20 percentage points lower than the global average. Only one-third of coexisting and associated minerals are developed in an integrated manner, and the comprehensive recovery rate for these minerals falls below 20%. As a result, valuable minerals are extracted while secondary ones are discarded; rich ores are mined while poor ones are left behind; easy-to-extract minerals are exploited while difficult-to-extract ones are neglected—even resorting to predatory mining practices. This has led to severe waste and destruction of mineral resources, with annual economic losses from mineral resource exploitation totaling 78 billion yuan. Second, the comprehensive utilization rate of coexisting and associated resources is also low. According to surveys and statistics covering 1,845 mines, only 2% of them achieve a comprehensive utilization rate of 70%; as many as 75% of mines have a utilization rate of useful components below 2.5%. Third, the mining industry generates large volumes of “three wastes”—waste rock, wastewater, and exhaust gases—and their utilization rates remain extremely low. For instance, the stockpile of tailings from metal mines alone has reached 5 billion tons in China and continues to grow at a rate of about 500 million tons per year.[2] Similarly, coal gangue produced by coal mining now totals 3 billion tons, increasing at a rate of 150–200 million tons annually, resulting in approximately 1,200 accumulated gangue mountains. However, the utilization rate of industrial “three wastes” in China remains relatively low, leaving a significant gap compared to that of developed countries.
4. Mineral resource management is chaotic, and the workforce lacks quality.
Mineral resource information is incomplete, not publicly available, and lacks unified management, resulting in vast amounts of data remaining inaccessible to the general public. There is a shortage of analysis and forecasts regarding the supply and demand dynamics of the mining economy, and overall, macro-level guidance is lacking. Illegal mining activities and unauthorized licensing continue to occur. Due to the frequent occurrence of mine accidents in recent years, mining enterprises now face an unfavorable situation: "Few talented individuals from outside the mining system are willing to enter mines anymore, while a large number of skilled personnel within the mining system are leaving." Currently, most miners have only completed primary and junior high school education; they lack the necessary training both in terms of technical skills and theoretical knowledge, making it difficult for them to meet the demands of today's modern, high-speed mining economy.
5. The ecological environment around the mine is severely damaged.
In addition to directly damaging the land surface and topography and encroaching upon land, mineral extraction also generates large quantities of tailings and waste rock, which further occupy vast areas of land and lead to a reduction in arable land around mining sites. In particular, underground mining can cause ground subsidence and earthquakes, altering the natural circulation of groundwater and disrupting the dynamic equilibrium between surface water and groundwater. Soil and water erosion caused by the accumulation of mine waste is becoming increasingly severe, sometimes even triggering dam failures and mudslides, resulting in loss of life and property. Moreover, the toxic and harmful gases and wastewater discharged during mining operations severely damage the surrounding ecosystems, profoundly impacting the human living environment.
    III. Strategic Objectives for the Sustainable Development of Mineral Resources
The strategy for the development and utilization of mineral resources, aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of the national economy and society, is premised on the continuous supply, rational use, effective protection, and reduced environmental costs of mineral resources. It seeks to fully meet the demand for mineral resources in national economic development and comprehensively enhance the economic, resource, environmental, and social benefits derived from their development and utilization.
The strategic goal for the sustainable development of mineral resources should be:
1. Maximize the fulfillment of the needs for sustainable development of the national economy and ensure that key minerals urgently needed by the national economy have corresponding proven reserves. It is essential to maintain a basic balance between resource growth and resource consumption, with the growth rate of proven reserves of major minerals being aligned with the level of socio-economic development.
2. Continuously improve the level of mineral resource utilization. We must focus on enhancing the comprehensive and secondary utilization of mineral resources, continuously boosting the national economic output per unit of mineral resource, and reducing the level of mineral resource consumption per unit of GDP.
3. Establish an effective system for the management and protection of mineral resources, gradually developing a policy framework and legal system for the sustainable development of mineral resources. Also, set up a comprehensive decision-making mechanism and a unified management system for the sustainable exploration, development, and utilization of resources. Further strengthen and improve the legal and regulatory framework centered on the “Mineral Resources Law,” bringing the development of mineral resources, geological environmental protection, geological exploration activities, and all related management efforts squarely within the rule of law.
4. Protect the environment, strictly control environmental pollution caused by mineral exploration and development, and reduce the environmental costs associated with the exploitation of mineral resources.
IV. Countermeasures for the Sustainable Development of Mineral Resources
1. Strengthen publicity, update mindsets, and enhance awareness of sustainable development.
Sustainable development is a brand-new concept that has only gained widespread recognition from the international community after decades of evolution. In March 1996, at the Fourth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress, China adopted the “Outline of the Ninth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives for 2010,” which officially designated the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and the strategy of sustainable development as the nation’s two major development strategies—both for the immediate future and for the long term. To ensure that this concept takes root in everyone’s heart and becomes a guiding principle for action, we must comprehensively promote the idea of sustainable development and strengthen the awareness of sustainable development among mining industry practitioners. At present, China is undergoing a phase of rapid economic growth, and mining production still largely relies on traditional, extensive operating practices. Therefore, it is essential to enhance the awareness of sustainable development among those engaged in mining activities—especially among leaders at all levels, mining management personnel, and particularly decision-makers who determine the direction of mining development and formulate mining policies and regulations.
2. Greatly enhance the comprehensive utilization rate of mineral resources.
Currently, the growing contradiction between economic growth and relatively scarce resources has increasingly become an urgent issue that needs to be addressed in China’s economic development. Insufficient resource supply has emerged as one of the key factors hindering China’s economic growth. The way forward to resolve this contradiction lies in earnestly implementing the guiding principle of “combining resource development with conservation, giving priority to conservation, and enhancing resource utilization efficiency.” We must closely focus on transforming the mode of economic growth and achieving sustainable development, centering on improving economic efficiency. On the one hand, we need to vigorously promote resource conservation, reduce consumption, and minimize waste emissions. On the other hand, we must intensify efforts in the comprehensive utilization of resources. Comprehensive resource utilization is a crucial measure for ensuring the sustainable use of resources and enhancing enterprise economic benefits. We should proceed from the specific characteristics and conditions of China’s mineral resources, closely focusing on the rational development and effective utilization of mineral resources, and strengthening research, development, and technological breakthroughs with a particular emphasis on comprehensive resource utilization and reducing costs to increase enterprise profitability. We must organically integrate technological breakthroughs in comprehensive mineral resource utilization with technological upgrades and technology dissemination, using advanced scientific and technological means to drive the comprehensive utilization of mineral resources to deeper levels. We should leverage market mechanisms and various economic instruments to accelerate the promotion and application of advanced technologies, speed up the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces, and raise the mining and beneficiation standards of newly built and expanded mines. We must actively research, develop, and promote advanced technologies for deep processing of mineral products, explore new applications for minerals, improve the quality and structure of resource-utilization products, and thereby achieve resource conservation, cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and greater market adaptability. Moreover, we must pay close attention to harnessing scientific and technological progress to exploit and utilize low-grade ores, small-scale mines, coexisting minerals, residual ores, and off-site deposits, thus elevating the overall level of resource utilization.
3. Reasonably explore and develop mineral resources in designated areas.
The exploration and development of regional mineral resources should serve the overall development of the national economy and the coordinated development of regional economies. They should be used as an important lever for coordinating regional economic development. Currently, China is implementing the Great Western Development Strategy, which is a crucial measure to ensure the country’s long-term sustainable development. The central and western regions are relatively rich in mineral resources; we must make good use of these resource advantages and intensify exploration and development efforts. While strengthening mineral exploration in the central and western regions, we should also deepen geological and mining work in the eastern regions. In the east, emphasis should be placed on economic benefits, with primary focus on exploring oil and gas, precious metals, and non-metallic minerals that offer high economic returns. In the western exploration efforts, we should conduct geological prospecting along key ore-forming belts, striving to identify a number of promising prospective areas in regions of the central and western regions where exploration levels remain low, and further expand the reserves of existing mines. In areas already showing significant leads and possessing enormous exploration potential—such as the Tarim Basin, the Southwest Three Rivers region, the middle section of the northern margin of the North China Craton, and the Shaan-Gan-Chuan region—we should establish new national-level mineral resource supply bases. Moreover, through water exploration and water management, we should provide water sources to support the development of industry and agriculture in the western regions.
4. Implement a policy of prioritizing domestic resources while supplementing them with overseas resources, and fully leverage the “two resources and two markets” approach.
To seize the opportunities presented by the globalization of the mining industry, we must take advantage of the current favorable international environment for mining investment and leverage both domestic and foreign capital to bring China’s exploration and mining industries onto the global stage. This will enable us to actively participate in international mining cooperation and competition, and establish several overseas mining bases to help offset the shortfall in domestic mineral supply during the first half of this century. Domestically, we need to foster large-scale integration among exploration, mining, and scientific research, thereby enhancing our country’s competitiveness in the global mining market. Abroad, we should also form strategic alliances with multinational mining companies, mining financial institutions, and mining technology service providers, enabling our overseas mining entities to rapidly integrate into the international mining market. Only in this way can we gain strategic initiative.
5. Achieving sustainable development in the mining industry through science and technology.
Leveraging modern science and technology, we must intensify mineral resource exploration efforts, open up new frontiers for mining operations, and strengthen research on the comprehensive utilization of mineral resources as well as their secondary development, thereby addressing the issue of resource depletion. Mineral resources are non-renewable natural resources—each extraction reduces their availability. We must rely on scientific and technological progress to develop new applications for minerals and thereby increase the supply of these resources.
With advances in science and technology, leaching techniques are being used to exploit and develop low-grade ores, small-scale mines, coexisting ores, residual ores, and extra-territorial ores. Low-grade ores that were previously discarded as “waste rock” will gradually become viable for mining and recovery.
By leveraging modern biotechnology to carry out post-mining reclamation efforts, humanity is concretely demonstrating its commitment to environmental protection and its determination to reduce and prevent the damage that mining activities inflict on natural ecosystems. China’s mine reclamation efforts have already achieved remarkable results and have earned high praise from international peers.
Through technological advancements, solid waste such as mine tailings and gangue can have their valuable components recovered and reused as construction materials and backfilling agents, thereby turning waste into valuable resources and reducing the negative impact on the environment.
6. Strengthen awareness of environmental and ecological protection.
To stay on the path of sustainable development, we must first enhance awareness of environmental and ecological protection and abandon the old practice of "polluting first, then cleaning up." We need to strengthen environmental monitoring, take timely measures, and maintain ecological balance. We must attach great importance to clean and civilized production in mining and mineral-processing enterprises, intensify the comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, and achieve pollution-free production. Protecting the environment and benefiting humanity means that, while developing mineral resources, we must fully consider long-term development and the survival of future generations.
7. Strengthen the management of mineral resources effectively.
First, we must rectify and improve the order of the mining industry. A well-organized mining sector not only ensures the rational and orderly exploration and utilization of mineral resources but also effectively addresses resource waste and environmental damage caused by unregulated and indiscriminate mining practices. Second, we need to strengthen the government’s macroeconomic regulatory role in the development and utilization of mineral resources. Through macroeconomic regulation, we can reduce the external diseconomies arising from market forces in the exploitation and use of mineral resources. Macro-regulation can be carried out at three levels: national, regional, and mine-specific. Third, we must enhance management across all stages of mineral resource development and utilization—including pre-production management, in-production management, product consumption management, and trade management. Fourth, we should strive to promote appropriately scaled-up operations in mineral resource development and utilization. Specifically, large mines should be developed on a large scale, while small mines should join forces; enterprise scales should aim for internal economies of scale, and industry scales should seek external economies of scale as much as possible. Fifth, we must optimize the market allocation of mineral resources. All forms of predatory resource extraction and inefficient resource utilization stem from the low prices or even free use of resources. Therefore, in principle, the granting of mining rights should be conducted through paid methods such as bidding, auction, and listing, fully leveraging the market’s fundamental role in allocating mineral resources. Sixth, we must strengthen environmental management in mining operations. Starting from the feasibility studies of projects, environmental protection considerations for resource development and utilization should be incorporated early in the development phase and implemented concurrently with the main facilities of the development project. Moreover, the end point of environmental management should not be merely the closure of mines, but rather should extend to the land reclamation phase following mine closure, thereby minimizing the environmental damage caused by mineral resource development and utilization. In short, the strategy of sustainable development is a fundamental national policy for our country and also the only viable path for the development of the mining industry. Our country’s mining sector has already undertaken several promising initiatives and achieved certain accomplishments. Going forward, we must further uphold the strategy of sustainable development and ensure its effective implementation in industry planning, design, and production and construction.