China continues to strengthen energy, resource security capacity: global mining report

China has continued to strengthen its capacity to ensure energy and resource security, according to the Global Mining Development Report 2026 released by the China Geological Survey under the Ministry of Natural Resources on Friday.

The report indicates that since China launched a new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration in 2021, the exploration of strategic emerging minerals has achieved leapfrog development, and the country's capacity for independent resource supply has been significantly enhanced.

According to the report, China's new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration has produced remarkable results, with mineral resource reserves growing substantially. China currently ranks the first in the world in reserves of 14 minerals and has achieved three-dimensional expansion in oil and gas exploration, with deep-layer and deep-sea areas becoming new growth points.

Meanwhile, China's scale of mineral product production and smelting and processing remains the world's largest, and its leading position in the industrial chain has been continuously consolidated. In the smelting and processing sector in particular, the output of more than 30 metallurgical products ranks the first in the world, and the output of 17 mineral products accounts for about 50 percent of global mineral product output. This signifies that China is not only a major mineral resource producer, but also a supply leader and important driver in the global smelting and processing industry.

In addition, the scale of China's mining economy and its role in driving employment have continued to strengthen, providing strong support for socioeconomic development. As of April 2026, China had boasted 12,600 exploration rights and 30,400 mining rights, along with 55,000 mining enterprises and 834,000 smelting and processing enterprises. The mining industry and its related sectors have become an important pillar of regional economic development and people's livelihoods and employment.

"China has actively contributed its strength to global mining transformation. China has signed memorandums of understanding on geological and mining cooperation with more than 70 other countries, and technologies and equipment such as autonomous mining trucks, mining large models, and tailings resource recovery have been deployed globally," said Zou Xiehua, chief drafter of the Global Mining Development Report 2026.

China continues to strengthen energy, resource security capacity: global mining report

China has revised its mineral resources catalog, increasing the number of recognized subtypes from 84 to 119 while keeping the number of mineral types at 174, giving regulators a more detailed basis for exploration, mining rights and strategic resource policy, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on Tuesday.

Drawn up with the National Development and Reform Commission, the catalog updates a classification dating from 1994 and divides mineral resources into four broad groups: energy, metallic, nonmetallic and water and gas resources.

Qiao Chunlei, deputy director-general of the ministry's Department of Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision, detailed how the revisions reshuffled existing categories.

"We added nine mineral types and merged 15 into six. Some mineral types in the previous classification were reclassified as 13 subtypes, and we added another 22 subtypes. We also changed the names of some mineral types," he said.

The net effect leaves the overall number of mineral types unchanged, while the expanded list of subtypes allows regulators to draw finer distinctions within them.

Among the minerals formally included in the catalog is high-purity quartz ore, which Chinese authorities recognized as a mineral type last year. A key material in semiconductor and solar manufacturing, it is precisely the type of strategic resource the catalog was revised to manage.

The ministry said the finer classifications would support its work in setting exploration and development targets, identifying promising areas for prospecting and allocating mining rights. They would also inform the selection of strategic minerals for special protection and the design of differentiated policies on extraction, stockpiling, imports and exports.

"This revision will help secure mineral supplies and support the effective implementation of regulations under the Mineral Resources Law. The catalog will inform planning, policy, property rights, standards, statistics, taxes and fees, law enforcement and environmental protection. It will provide a foundation for more precise, science-based management of the country's mineral resources," Qiao said.

Going forward, the ministry plans to align the catalog with mineral resources planning, mining rights administration, industrial policy, resource statistics and the collection of resource taxes and fees, giving every category of mineral a clear administrative identity.

China revises mineral resources catalog to guide mining and strategic resource policy