What to do to protect all miners? The authoritative interpretation of the Ministry of Natural Resources is here!

◎ Wang Yu

Recently, the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Strategic Action Equipment for a New Round of Prospecting Breakthroughs" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), which aims to promote the construction of a modern green exploration equipment system and a modern field condition guarantee system, help a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions to make a major breakthrough, and provide strong support for ensuring the security of national energy resources. In order to facilitate all parties to better understand the main content and related requirements of the "Guiding Opinions", the person in charge of the equipment group of the Prospecting Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources recently accepted an interview with reporters.

Strengthening the construction of prospecting equipment is the due meaning of the new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic action

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly made important instructions and instructions on ensuring the safety of energy resources and strengthening the exploration and development of mineral resources, and in October 2022, in an important reply letter to all geologists of the Sixth Geological Brigade of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, it was clearly required to "actively practice the concept of green development, increase exploration efforts, strengthen scientific and technological research, and play a greater role in the new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions".

The person in charge of the equipment group of the prospecting office of the Ministry of Natural Resources said that at present, a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions is being carried out in depth across the country, and the strategic mineral prospecting work based on the "four zones" and the construction of large-scale resource bases is progressing well. As the "weapon" of geological prospecting, the performance of exploration technology and equipment directly affects the quality and efficiency of prospecting and exploration, and strengthening the construction of prospecting equipment is the due meaning of a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic action.

According to the person in charge, in order to find out the facts, identify the problems and gaps, and improve the ability of the new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic action equipment support, the equipment group of the prospecting office organized and carried out a survey of prospecting equipment and a comparative analysis of prospecting technology and equipment at home and abroad. The results show that after decades of accumulation, although progress has been made in the development of mainland exploration technology and equipment, there are still some shortcomings and challenges. In general, at present, the equipment of the mainland geological exploration team is outdated, the green advanced equipment is less, the advanced instruments and equipment are mainly imported, the domestic R&D support capacity is insufficient, the level of equipment industrialization is not high, and the safety and security conditions of field life are poor, so it is urgent to strengthen the construction of prospecting equipment, support the comprehensive promotion of green exploration, and meet the new needs of prospecting equipment for a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions.

The "Guiding Opinions" closely focus on the practical needs of the new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions to carry out equipment construction, and its content mainly includes the installation of prospecting professional equipment and the construction of field condition guarantee equipment. The former covers aerial geophysical remote sensing, ground geophysics, geochemistry, drilling, experimental testing, geological information equipment, etc.; The latter refers to the comprehensive field support base, field safety protection equipment, transportation and communication equipment that serve and guarantee the development of field prospecting.

Since last year, the China Geological Survey of the Ministry of Natural Resources has taken the lead in accelerating the construction of a modern field conditions support system, and has successively formulated the "Field Conditions Guarantee Construction Plan (2023~2035)", "Field Comprehensive Support Base Construction Plan (2024~2026)", "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Use of Geological Survey Field Comprehensive Support Bases", "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Emergency Equipment Allocation" and other institutional documents, and deployed the construction of field comprehensive support bases, field support workstations, and field camps in the countryThe "three-station" field conditions guarantee system has formed a "large joint logistics" pattern for field conditions support, providing comprehensive service guarantee for geologists to carry out field work in the overall situation and even the whole country.

The main task is to promote green exploration and shorten the gap with the level of advanced foreign equipment

The "Guiding Opinions" clearly stated that the two main tasks of equipment construction are to promote green exploration and shorten the gap with foreign advanced equipment.

Promoting green exploration is the requirement of the times to practice Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought and implement the new development concept and the concept of "two mountains", which requires prospecting equipment to have the characteristics of green exploration such as high efficiency, less land occupation, less pollution and less disturbance, and actively build a modern equipment system that coordinates ecological environmental protection and prospecting breakthroughs, so as to realize the combination of high-quality development of prospecting breakthroughs and high-level protection of the ecological environment.

The person in charge said that shortening the gap with foreign advanced equipment is a practical urgent need for high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement in the field of prospecting equipment construction. At present, there are few types of high-end exploration equipment in the mainland, the autonomy of software equipment is weak, and the proportion of foreign brands is high. With the technical blockade and price monopoly of high-end instruments and equipment in some countries in recent years, the safety risk has intensified, and it is necessary to accelerate the research and development of high-end equipment and technical equipment with the risk of "stuck neck" urgently needed for prospecting breakthroughs, and accelerate the replacement of domestic equipment.

The "Guiding Opinions" put forward the two-stage construction goals of prospecting equipment by 2027 and 2035, mainly based on the complexity, arduousness, long-term and current status of equipment construction in the mainland. The stage division should not only be considered from the time scale to be consistent with the overall strategic action of the new round of prospecting breakthrough and the realization of the stage target and task, but also from the demand dimension, the construction should be implemented in stages and steps in accordance with the principle of priority and urgency first. At the same time, the two-stage construction goal should also be closely combined with the two major tasks of accelerating the update and promotion of high-efficiency and low-cost prospecting equipment in the short term, actively promoting green exploration work, shortening the gap with foreign advanced equipment in the long term, and solving the problem of urgently needed key technical equipment.

The three key construction contents focus on the integrated design and construction of the whole chain of prospecting equipment

According to the person in charge, the "Guiding Opinions" clarified three key construction contents, focusing on the integrated design and construction of the whole chain from the R&D and upgrading of prospecting equipment, application demonstration and industrialization development, and as far as possible to reflect the development concept of system integrity, advanced capabilities, supply autonomy, strategic support and sustainable development of prospecting equipment, as well as the development direction of green, automated, intelligent and efficient prospecting equipment construction. The first is to speed up the upgrading, research and development, promotion and replacement of prospecting equipment, and establish a sustainable dynamic update construction mechanism; The second is to strengthen the construction and application of green exploration equipment, consider focusing on different scenarios such as desert Gobi, grassland wetlands, forest cover areas, intertidal tidal flats and other scenarios to create green exploration technology and equipment demonstrations, promote a new exploration model of geological prospecting and ecological environmental protection synergy, and select different professional fields such as aerial geophysical remote sensing, ground geophysics, geochemistry, drilling and other professional fields to build prospecting technology and equipment innovation centers, and promote the deep integration of "production, education, research and application" of prospecting equipment; The third is to promote the industrialization of exploration equipment, give full play to the innovation main position and market-oriented advantages of enterprises, vigorously promote the construction of a new industrialized industrial system for exploration equipment, and realize the high-quality development of the prospecting equipment industry.

The "Guiding Opinions" also put forward specific measures and requirements from different angles and levels to effectively ensure the effectiveness of various goals and tasks in the construction of prospecting equipment. First, from the policy level, it is required to seize the opportunity, actively connect with the national large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in action, as well as the local introduction of various detailed implementation plans at all levels, and actively strive to include the renewal of prospecting equipment, and accelerate the promotion of intelligent, green and localized prospecting equipment; Second, from the level of financial support, it is required to raise funds from multiple parties, increase capital investment, rely on major project tasks to strengthen R&D investment, guide enterprises to use their own funds to invest in equipment R&D and application to promote industrialization development, and actively build a financial guarantee mechanism for upper and lower coordination and industry cooperation; Third, from the level of talent team construction, it is required to pay attention to the cultivation of prospecting equipment research and development talents, and give inclined support in the recommendation and selection of scientific and technological talents at the national, provincial and ministerial levels.

Source: Ministry of Natural Resources