People's Daily| China has become the largest producer, consumer and trader of minerals

Original title: China plays the role of "stabilizer" in the supply of critical minerals (understanding China's new economic advantages (3))

Recently, an expedition team composed of experts from the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and other units went deep into the Panlong lead-zinc mine in Guangxi and the Yaoyuan copper polymetallic mine in Guangdong to carry out exploration. As part of China's new strategic action to break through in prospecting, the purpose of the geologists' trip is to "lay the ground" for the discovery of more key minerals.

China has become the world's largest producer, consumer and trader of minerals, and plays a "stabilizer" role in the supply of some critical minerals.

The resource reserves are abundant and the market share is high

Critical minerals are important materials to support the development of emerging industries such as a new generation of information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, and new energy. Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", China's mineral exploration investment has continued to achieve positive growth, effectively improving the resource continuity capacity.

Taking vanadium, known as "industrial monosodium glutamate", as an example, Chinese companies have emerged in the global market through the efficient development and utilization of their own rich vanadium titanomagnetite resources.

"Vanadium products can effectively improve the strength of steel, and are also widely used in energy storage, aviation, chemical industry and other fields. Only a few countries in the world can produce vanadium raw materials and vanadium products on a large scale. Wang Chaoyun, general manager of Chengdu Vanadium and Titanium Resources Development Co., Ltd. of Pangang Group, said that Pangang has independently developed the industry's leading vanadium oxide clean production technology, and continues to provide high-quality products stably at home and abroad, of which vanadium pentoxide has a global market share of about 20% in recent years.

According to data released by the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, in 2023, the output of 10 commonly used non-ferrous metals in China will be 74.698 million tons, exceeding 70 million tons for the first time. In terms of rare earths, China's output of rare earth smelting and separation products and rare earth functional materials account for more than 90% and 75% of the world's total, respectively, and the scale of rare earth permanent magnet materials, hydrogen storage materials, polishing materials, luminescent materials and other industries ranks first in the world.

China's new advantages in critical minerals have attracted the attention of overseas media and institutions. According to an article published on the website of Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy, China's combination of encouraging innovation and environmental management has created a significant advantage in the field of critical minerals, and the rare efficiency and resilience of supply chains have made China a key player in the global transition to renewable energy.

"Mineral resources are the food of industry. The demand for copper, aluminum, vanadium, nickel, cobalt, lithium and other resources is gradually increasing. In this context, China can give full play to its own advantages in mineral reserves, complement each other's advantages with more countries, and jointly maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains. Liu Zhiyong, an associate professor at the School of Metallurgy and Environment at Central South University, said.

Strong development capabilities and service for emerging industries

At the beginning of March, more than 50 new energy buses were successfully hoisted onto ships in Qingdao Port and exported to Finland, Belgium and other countries. On the other hand, Lu Lu, general manager of Shandong Xintailai Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., is planning to add overseas warehouses for his own photovoltaic products, "Our orders have been scheduled to June this year, and the amount is expected to exceed 100 million yuan." She said.

Customs data shows that in 2023, the total export of electric manned vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and solar cells, the "new three" products, will exceed one trillion yuan for the first time. The accelerated development of emerging industries is inseparable from China's strong ability in the development and utilization of key mineral resources such as lithium and graphite.

According to the information released by Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Group Co., Ltd. on March 29, most of the global lithium resource supply comes from salt lakes and hard rock lithium mines, and mature salt lakes are mainly distributed in the "lithium triangle" of South America and China. China also has the world's largest proven reserves of lepidolite. It is reported that the company is the only enterprise in the global lithium industry that has the industrialization technology of "brine lithium extraction", "ore lithium extraction" and "recycling lithium extraction", with the production capacity of more than 40 kinds of lithium compounds and lithium metal products in five categories, and a complete product supply portfolio can meet the unique and diversified needs of customers. At the same time, Ganfeng Lithium is actively developing lithium battery recycling business, and the proportion of lithium battery recycling and lithium extraction capacity in the future is expected to reach 30% of the company's total lithium extraction capacity.

Graphite is an indispensable key raw material for emerging industries such as new energy and new materials. Wang Jionghui, deputy general manager of China Minmetals Corporation and chairman of Minmetals Graphite Industry Co., Ltd., said that in 2023, China's natural graphite output will be about 1.2 million tons, accounting for 77% of the world's total. On the processing side, China has a well-developed graphite processing industry chain, with more than 90% of the world's spherical graphite processing capacity and 85% of the anode material production capacity. "In recent years, we have actively integrated Heilongjiang Yunshan graphite mine, made breakthroughs in intelligent ore blending, low-temperature electric mining truck and other technologies, and strived to become a global excellent graphite product supplier. Wang Jionghui said.

In the eyes of many overseas institutions, China's role as a "stabilizer" for the supply of critical minerals is not only due to its rich resource reserves, but also due to China's continuous improvement in mineral development and processing technology. According to an article published by the Korea Industrial Research Institute, China has abundant reserves of critical mineral resources and has a strong voice in the market for smelting and processing imported ores into secondary battery materials. Singapore's Straits Times reported that while many countries have rare earth processing technology, China is the only producer with the production capacity for all 17 rare earths.

Intensive utilization, more environmentally friendly and more efficient

Walking into the production workshop of iron phosphate and lithium iron phosphate battery of Guizhou Phosphate Group, the 40,000-ton battery-grade iron phosphate production line is running in an orderly manner, continuously supplying higher value-added phosphorus products for downstream enterprises. He Guangliang, chairman of Guizhou Phosphate Group, believes that the "rich mine" must be "fine-opened", so that the marginal output of value generation is greater than the marginal increase of resource consumption.

The intensive utilization of resources is another magic weapon for China to gain new advantages in the field of critical minerals and continue to consolidate them.

-- Greater R&D efforts. "We use high-abundance rare earth permanent magnet materials and related preparation technologies to explore the replacement of neodymium with cerium with high reserves, which solves the problem of balanced utilization of rare earth co-associated ores and reduces the cost on the premise of ensuring material performance. Xu Keyong, general manager of Ningbo Ketian Magnetics Co., Ltd., said. In the past year, Ketian Magnetics has obtained 4 patents for the manufacture of high-performance NdFeB magnets overseas.

——The product system is more complete. According to the relevant person in charge of CNMC (Ningxia) Oriental Group Co., Ltd., the tantalum and niobium products produced by the company are widely used in high-temperature alloy additives, superconducting products, chemical anti-corrosion and other fields, and the global market share of ultra-high purity tantalum powder, tantalum wire for capacitors, and superconducting niobium materials is more than 25%, 40% and 70% respectively. "Our investment company, Dongfang Tantalum, has developed a series of products of multiple grades, covering various types such as compounds, metallurgical additives, foils, wires, etc. Tantalum and niobium products are in the forefront of similar products in the world in terms of quality, grade and scientific and technological content. The person in charge said.

-- Stronger awareness of environmental protection. "Through the International Vanadium Technical Committee, Pangang and other members jointly fund global experts, scholars and enterprises to carry out vanadium application research, and continue to pay attention to the impact of vanadium production and use on humans and the environment. In production, we strengthen the research and development of green and low-carbon technologies and actively explore green and low-carbon production methods. Wang Chaoyun said.

From January to February this year, the number of new foreign-funded enterprises in China hit a new high in the past five years. Among them, the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises in high-tech industries increased by 32.2% year-on-year. A number of experts said that multinational companies have deployed in China, not only because China has a vast market like the sea, but also because China has outstanding industrial supporting and integration capabilities. China's unique advantages in the field of critical minerals attract many investors and create more opportunities for in-depth economic and trade cooperation between China and foreign countries.