Vice Minister of Land and Resources Shou Jiahua announced during a press conference Wednesday that five years of geological surveys, costing 4.4 billion yuan (US$531.4 million), have revealed the existence of 421 promising new potential harvesting sites.

The new findings give a further boost to China's rock-solid mineral reserves, which are a pillar of the country's surging economic development, officials said Wednesday.

Shou said the new findings lay a foundation to relieve the country's thirst for minerals.

More than 15,000 geologists and other professionals participated in the survey.

Topping the list is the discovery of new copper mines with total reserves estimated at more than 12 million tons in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, southwest China's Yunnan Province and Tibet, said Shou.

Copper shortages have forced the country to spend more than US$3 billion in each of the past several years to import two-thirds of its annual copper needs.

Also found were 38 sedimentary basins where crude oil and natural gas may be found.

The country's total reserves of crude oil and natural gas could amount to more than 40 billion tons in oil equivalent.

But Shao Juenian, director of the ministry's Department of Mineral Resource Reserves, says that the discoveries must be followed by more work, and soon.

More detailed information about the new mines, such as the specific reserves, is needed to determine if commercial exploitation is possible, he said.

At present, only 18.9 percent of China's solid mineral resources can be further developed.

"While the existence of a larger part of these mineral resources has been theoretically proven, we still don't know their economic potential," he said.

While 148 types of solid minerals have been found in China, to date the total reserves of only 10.6 percent of them have been quantified.

However, Shao said the new findings provide opportunity and the central government is steadily stepping up its efforts in the regard. "This nationwide survey is a good example," he said.

Shao said he is on solid ground to refute some reports that the country expects to import as much as 500 million tons of crude oil by the year 2020.

"Our estimate of the number is roughly between 300 million and 400 million tons, and we expect it to shrink further due to improved utilization technologies," he said.

However, China will play a bigger role in the international mineral market. "No country can develop on its own mineral resources only," he said.

(China Daily February 26, 2004)