China's central government will allocate 10 billion yuan, or about US$120 million, to set up a fund next year to support prospecting for metals in short supply, according to an official from the Ministry of Land and Resources on Tuesday.

The money will used mainly to prospect for copper, aluminium, plumbum (or lead) and zinc resources, according to Liu Lianhe, vice director of the geological prospecting department of the ministry.

According to the “The Investigation and Evaluation Report on the Potential of Short-supply Mine Resources” released by the China Geological Survey, two thirds of the metal mines in China have little metal left. This is because of dozens of years' of exploitation since 1950.

From January to August this year, the government issued 7,455 prospecting licenses and 24,580 exploitation licenses, 13.3 percent and 19.9 percent more than the same period last year respectively. These figures from the “Land and Resources Comprehensive Statistics Report” were released by the ministry.

Due to the huge risks involved in metal prospecting, foreign and commercial capital is coming in slowly, Liu said. The prospecting process is typically a very long one, taking between four to six years, and it is not unusual for 95 out of 100 projects to fail.

"We expect that the state's investment will attract more commercial funding into this sector," Liu said.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn November 23, 2005)