Mining is a basic industry of the national economy, it provides rich raw mineral materials for various social sectors and dynamically supports development of the national economy.
By early 2006, there were a total of 159 species of minerals with clearly detected reserves, including 10 species of energy resources, 54 metallic mineral species, 92 species of non-metallic mineral resources and 3 species of water/gas resources. Sub-mineral species mounted to 223. Except uranium, thorium, geothermal resource, groundwater, mineral water and newly listed species, the total detected reserves of 99 species in the remaining 210 increased over the previous year, the detected reserves withdrew for 70 species, and remained for 41 species, accounting for 47%, 33% and 20%, respectively.
In 2006, the total investment in fixed assets in the mining industry reached 416.8 billion yuan, an increase of 28.9% compared with the previous year.
In 2006, China's major mineral production was on steady increase, and actively safeguarded socio-economic development. The output of raw coal totaled 2.38 billion tons, crude oil 184 million tons and iron ore 588 million tons. The output of 10 kinds of non-ferrous metals totaled 19.17 million tons; phosphorite, 38.96 million tons; crude salt, 54.03 million tons. National mineral import and export trade amounted to 383.9 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 21.6% of total national foreign trade volume. Imports of crude oil totaled 145.18 million tons, iron ore, 326.32 million tons, manganese ore, 6.21 million tons, chromite, 4.32 million tons, copper ore, 3.63 million tons, and potash fertilizer, 7.43 million tons. Compared with 2005, import of copper and potash fertilizer shrank, while that of crude oil, iron ore, manganese ore and chromite grew to some extent.
By the end of 2006, there were 26095 effective prospecting permits national-wide, including 1054 permits on oil and natural gas and 117,910 effective mining permits, including 612 permits on oil and natural gas. A total of 27 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) joint bidding, auction and listing of the prospecting permits. Throughout China, 2953 prospecting permits were transferred with the total value of 3.97 billion yuan. Thirty provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) launched auction, budding and transfer of the mining permits. A sum of 35,425 mining permits was transferred with the total value of 10604 million yuan.
In 2006, contracted foreign investment programs in the mining industry reached 208, a drop of 17.5% over the previous year, accounting for 0.5% of all the projects. Foreign investment of 460 million U.S. dollars was actually used, a year-on-year increase of 29.7%, 0.66% of the foreign investment actually used.
Now, China's mining investment is gradually shifted to the central and western regions where rich mineral resources are stored. Sixteen key mineral species, 11 major oil and gas basins, 13 large coal bases and 16 key metal ore zones were highlighted during the "11th Five-Year Plan" by Department of National Land and Resources. And most of them locate in the central and western regions.
