The top ten most valuable mineral belts in China, see if there is one near your home.

With a land area of 9.6 million square kilometers, China's mineral resources, which are beyond our sight, exceed everyone's imagination.

Did you know? The most notable mineral belts in China today are no longer the coalfields of Shanxi, the gold mines of Shandong, or the iron mines of Northeast China, but rather in the Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang, the Gangdise Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan, the Jindui City of Shaanxi, Kaiyang of Guizhou, and the salt lakes of Qinghai... in places that imagination can reach.

Now let's summarize the top ten most valuable mineral belts in China.

 

1. Xinjiang Coal Mining Belt

 

In March 2012, within an area of 170 square kilometers in the Sharl Lake region of eastern Xinjiang, coal reserves were confirmed to be as high as 13 billion tons, with prospective reserves exceeding 64 billion tons. The most notable aspect is that the Sharl Lake coalfield has a total of 25 coal seams, with a total thickness of 174.69 meters, of which 13 seams are mineable. There is a thick coal seam in the lower part of the coal-bearing strata, with a single layer thickness of 141 meters, which is not only the largest in China but also ranks second in thickness globally, following large coalfields like those in Sydney and Bowen, Australia, making it currently the most promising world-class large coalfield.

Xinjiang plans to build a large coal base in the Hami area, which is closer to the inland. By 2020, the annual coal production of this base is expected to reach 400 million tons, equivalent to the annual raw coal output of Shanxi Province.

 

2. Tibet Copper Mining Belt

 

Tibet is the province with the largest copper resource reserves in China, with 329 copper deposits discovered, including 11 large deposits and 6 medium-sized deposits. The total copper resource potential in the region reaches 30 million tons, accounting for more than half of the national total.

Jiamu Copper Mine

 

Currently, Tibet has discovered three large copper mineralization belts: the "Yulong Copper Mineralization Belt" in eastern Tibet, the "Gangdise Eastern Copper Mineralization Belt" from Lhasa to Shigatse, and the "Bangong Co–Nujiang Copper Mineralization Belt" from Bangong Lake to the Nujiang source in the Ali region; the Qulong Copper Mine, which has been evaluated as the largest single deposit in Asia, is expected to have copper resource reserves exceeding 10 million tons. Although the development of copper mines in Tibet is very challenging and supporting facilities are lacking, once these issues are resolved, the prospects are limitless.

 

3. Xinjiang Gold Mining Belt

 

In the 1.66 million square kilometers of Xinjiang, there are as many as 72 gold deposits, especially the gold deposit in Duolanasa in Haba County, which is of great value. 24.23 tons of gold lie about 50 kilometers northwest of Haba County, and only the workers of the third gold mine in Haba County interact with it daily.

 

Haba County, Xinjiang

 

Among them, the No. 1 ore body is the largest, accounting for about 70% of the total reserves of the deposit. The continuity of the surface ore body is very good, with a relatively large thickness and a gentle dip, making it very favorable for mining. The natural gold in the ore is mostly irregularly shaped, branched, or granular, with a high grade, averaging 994. The third gold mine uses a full mud cyanide carbon slurry method to extract gold, with a leaching rate of 93.26% to 96.14%, a recovery rate of 91.20% to 92.35%, and a tailings grade of 0.3 to 0.47 g/t, indicating good ore selectivity.

 

4. Qinghai Lithium Mining Belt

After the rise of new energy batteries, people have finally realized the value of Qinghai. Qinghai lithium ore is mainly produced in the Quaternary modern salt lakes in the central part of the Chaidamu Basin, existing as interstitial brine or pore brine, and lake water liquid minerals, coexisting with other salt minerals, with extremely rich reserves; its deposit scale and confirmed reserves rank among the top in the country. The cumulative confirmed lithium reserves are 13.9677 million tons, with proven reserves of 13.909 million tons, and a potential value of 361.773 billion yuan, accounting for 83% of the national proven reserves, ranking first in the country.

 

However, due to the immature technology, it has not yet been developed and utilized, and is still in the planning and demonstration stage before the lithium extraction process from salt lake brine.

 

5. Jiangxi Tungsten Mining Belt

 

Speaking of Jiangxi, one must mention tungsten resources, one of the "Five Golden Flowers" of Jiangxi Province, with 328,000 tons of proven tungsten reserves scattered throughout the picturesque Gan region.

It is worth noting that as a strategic resource, tungsten ore prices have experienced extreme fluctuations, with tungsten concentrate prices dropping from $148 per ton in 1981 to $52 per ton in 1996, a difference of as much as $96 per ton. The volatility in tungsten prices is mainly due to excessive domestic mining and low extraction technology.

 

Fortunately, after the rectification of mining order and industrial structure adjustment, tungsten prices in Jiangxi have stabilized. Tungsten and its alloys are extremely important functional materials in modern industry, national defense, and high-tech applications, widely used in aerospace, atomic energy, shipping, automotive, electrical, electronic, and chemical industries, with unlimited prospects in the future.

 

6. Guizhou Phosphate Mining Belt

 

Guizhou is a resource-rich province, with the largest phosphate resource reserves in the country and the second largest reserves of non-ferrous metal mines—aluminum ore—distributed over 176,000 square kilometers of land. Currently, the confirmed phosphate resource reserves in Guizhou are 2.687 billion tons, accounting for 43% of the national total.

Phosphorus, as a strategic resource, is of great importance and value, but some experts worry that if the current "rich extraction and poor abandonment" mining model continues, China's phosphate ore will be exhausted in 20 years.

 

7. Guizhou Bauxite Mining Belt

Among the many resources in Guizhou Province, bauxite, which accounts for 74% of the total in the province, is concentrated in two large areas on both sides of the Chuanqian Railway and the middle reaches of the Wujiang River, where the aluminum grade is high, the burial depth is shallow, and it is also easy to mine. Due to aluminum's light weight and toughness, it is a structural material for manufacturing aircraft, rockets, and automobiles, so the increasing demand for bauxite is facing a re-evaluation of prices, and the supply-demand contradiction will become increasingly prominent.

 

It is worth noting that although Guizhou's bauxite reserves are higher than those of other provinces, it is accompanied by other rare elements, and about 50% of the aluminum ore in Guizhou comes from informal mining, with a relatively low utilization rate.

 

8. Yunnan Gem Mines

 

Yunnan has discovered three important gemstone mineral belts in the Ailao Mountain area, the Gaoligong Mountain area, and the region from Maguan to Malipo. The Ailao Mountain gemstone belt starts from Jianchuan, passing through Dali, Midu, Nanjian, Jingdong, Zhenyuan, Yuanjiang, Honghe to Jinping, extending into Vietnam, with a total length of over 800 kilometers. This area contains rubies, sapphires, zircon, garnet, aquamarine, spinel, and other gemstones. The Gaoligong Mountain gemstone belt extends north and south along the Nujiang fault zone, splitting into two branches after reaching Lushui: the eastern branch is cut off by the Mengboluo River fault zone and moves into Myanmar; the western branch extends along the Gaoligong Mountain and is replaced by the Longling-Ruili fault zone after reaching Longling. This gemstone belt extends north into Tibet and south into Myanmar. It contains sapphires, aquamarine, beryl, tourmaline, and other gemstones.

Among the ruby resources in China, Yunnan rubies are of the highest quality and the largest scale, with a single high-quality ruby crystal selling for hundreds of thousands of yuan. Yunnan's emerald is the only gemstone-grade emerald production area in China, known as "Chinese Emerald."

 

9. Inner Mongolia Baiyun Obo Rare Earth Belt

The Baiyun Obo mine is a rare polymetallic symbiotic ore deposit in the world, distributed over an area of 18 kilometers in length from east to west, about 3 kilometers in width from north to south, covering a total area of 48 square kilometers. More than 160 types of minerals and over 70 elements have been identified within the ore body. The main mineral types include iron, niobium, and rare earth minerals. Among them, the iron ore reserves are 950 million tons, niobium ore reserves are 5.19 million tons, and the industrial reserves of rare earths are 36 million tons, accounting for 36% of the world's total and over 90% of the national total, thus earning the title of "Home of Rare Earths." Additionally, it contains various minerals such as copper, quartz, fluorite, apatite, and soft manganese ore.

 

To some extent, its selection is due to the continuous decline of Baotou Steel Rare Earth's performance. China's rare earth ore reserves rank first in the world, accounting for over 40% of the global total, yet it has fallen into a situation of neglect, selling rare earths as if they were cabbages. Such circumstances are truly lamentable. Fortunately, the country has now tightened rare earth exports, and future value is worth looking forward to.

 

10. Shaanxi Jinduicheng Molybdenum Mine Belt

 

China has rich molybdenum resources, with a total reserve of 8.4 million tons, ranking second in the world. There are 222 identified molybdenum mining areas distributed across 28 provinces. Henan Province has the richest molybdenum resources, accounting for 30.1% of the national total, followed by Shaanxi and Jilin, with these three provinces accounting for over 56.5% of the national molybdenum reserves. However, in terms of mining value and reputation, the super-large Jinduicheng molybdenum deposit in Shaanxi stands out, with its molybdenum concentrate reserves ranking first in the country, having identified molybdenum resources of 1,011,461.22 tons.