Report on China Exploration Trends 2015 was released recently on China Mining Congress & Expo. It shows that the investment of China’s geological exploration assumes rational regression, an average annual decrease of around 10% in recent three years, which assumes four significant features as follows. At first, the investment structure of geological exploration is in the process of continuous optimization and adjustment and the investment of mineral product exploration decreases, but it still plays a dominant role. Secondly, the investment of exploration is diversified in mineral types. The investment of exploring coal and iron ore remarkably decreases while the investment of exploring noble metal and non-ferrous metal is high although influenced at different levels. Thirdly, the regional pattern of exploration investment is further adjusted, and the proportion of investment in West China keeps rising. Fourthly, the workload of drilling tends to decline, and the reduction of workload for coal and iron ores is significant in particular.

In terms of the short-term situation of domestic geological exploration, the investment of social funds as the leading part for the mineral exploration becomes more and more prudent. It is estimated that the overall investment for China’s geological exploration in 2015 totals about 36 billion RMB, a decrease of 10 percent over the previous year, which is roughly equivalent to the level in 2009, but it remains a large quantity.

In the long run, China will comprehensively advance the implementation of a series of strategies such as deepening reform and the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (OBOR) in the coming 10-20 years, which will exert a profound influence on geological exploration, so the geological exploration will face new opportunities and challenges. At first, the demand structure of energy sources has dramatic changes and advances the strategic structural adjustment of the geological exploration industry. Secondly, China’s new industrialization, urbanization and green development will advance the expansion of geological exploration and make it shift towards serving people's livelihood. Thirdly, due to the implementation of national strategies of the OBOR and “Made in China 2025”, the geological exploration faces new opportunities and challenges.

In general, along with self-regulation and optimization of China’s economic structure and delivering of benefits in China’s deepening reform, the demand of China’s geological exploration market will become increasingly larger, and the geological exploration will have a bright prospects.

English Version of the report:/UploadFiles/2015_10/30/China Exploration Trends-english version.pdf

Chinese Version of the Report:/UploadFiles/2015_10/30/China Exploration Trends-Chinese version.pdf