Highlights

• China's geological exploration investment reached ¥116 billion ($16.3B) in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive annual increase.
• The investment aims to fortify domestic control over strategic minerals including lithium, copper, and critical battery materials.
• In 2024, China discovered 150 new mineral deposits:
  • 49 large
  • 54 medium
  • 47 small
• There were strong gains in fluorite, lithium, gold, and iron, supported by a 10.5% rise in fixed mining sector investment.
• This spending surge is part of a structural, long-term strategy to dominate global critical mineral supply chains.
• The strategy aims to strengthen China's pricing leverage amid Western de-risking efforts and industrial policy competition.

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What’s unfolding today remains a geological gold rush with strategic undertones. China’s Ministry of Natural Resources announced that geological exploration investment hit nearly 116 billion yuan (US$16.3 billion) in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive annual increase. According to the China Mineral Resources Report 2025, total spending under the 14th Five-Year Plan has now reached 450 billion yuan (US$63 billion)—a sustained surge designed to ensure a stable supply of key mineral products for both industrial and national security priorities.

This isn’t a random upswing. Reported in Asian Metal (opens in a new tab), the trend underscores Beijing’s determination to fortify domestic control over strategic minerals, especially rare earths, lithium, and other critical inputs essential to electrification, defense technologies, and green manufacturing.

From Copper to Critical Minerals: Expanding the Strategic Map

Exploration results were “strong” for copper, iron, and phosphate, but the more striking gains came in strategic and emerging minerals—including rare earths, lithium, zirconium, hafnium, and helium. China’s dominant positions in tungsten, molybdenum, antimony, fluorite, and graphite were described as “further strengthened.”

In 2024 alone, China discovered 150 new mineral deposits: 49 large, 54 medium, and 47 small. Fluorite, lithium, gold, and iron each tallied eight or nine new finds—an extraordinary rate of discovery suggesting well-funded, coordinated geoscience campaigns across multiple provinces.

The state’s narrative emphasizes exploration as the engine of future security—each new deposit a node in a national chain of supply resilience that directly supports the electric vehicle, renewable energy, and defense sectors.

The Fine Print: Record Spending, Record Intent

China also reported a 10.5% rise in fixed asset investment in the mining sector, while production of coal, crude oil, and natural gas hit record highs. The broad message: a dual-track approach—bolstering fossil energy reliability while fast-tracking rare earth and battery mineral discovery.

This mirrors Beijing’s long-term posture: maintain stability at home while pre-empting Western “de-risking” strategies abroad. For investors, it signals that China’s mineral strategy is neither cyclical nor defensive—it’s expansive and structural.

Reading Between the Lines

The data presented are credible within the framework of the Ministry’s official reports but should be treated as state-directed disclosures, reflecting national strategic aims more than market transparency. The investment numbers align with field reports from Chinese provinces and corporate spending patterns by major SOEs such as Northern Rare Earth Group, suggesting the figures are broadly accurate, albeit selectively framed to emphasize success.

For Western observers, the real takeaway is that China’s exploration surge isn’t slowing—it’s institutionalized. Each new ton of discovered rare earth or lithium strengthens China’s pricing leverage in the global supply chain and complicates U.S. and allied industrial policy timelines.

China’s 2024 geological exploration spending rose 16% to ¥116 billion—its fourth consecutive annual gain—expanding strategic mineral resources from rare earths to lithium. The country discovered 150 new deposits and increased fixed mining investment by 10.5%. These state-directed gains highlight Beijing’s structural intent to dominate critical mineral supply chains amid global decoupling efforts.

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