◎ Li Xi Li Qianwen
Recently, the official website of the Ministry of Natural Resources released the "2023 National Non-oil Geological Exploration Statistical Annual Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Annual Report"). According to the annual report, in 2023, the national investment in non-oil geological exploration will be 20.072 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, achieving positive growth for three consecutive years.
In terms of funding sources, in 2023, the central government, local government and social funds accounted for 23.0%, 42.4% and 34.6% of the total investment funds, respectively. The three types of investment all increased, among which the central government and social capital investment increased by 10.6 percent and 15.5 percent year-on-year respectively. The top five provinces (regions) in terms of capital investment are Inner Mongolia (2.071 billion yuan), Xinjiang (1.785 billion yuan), Gansu (1.155 billion yuan), Guangdong (1.022 billion yuan), and Sichuan (967 million yuan).
The funds are mainly invested in five aspects, namely mineral exploration, basic geological survey, hydrogeology, environmental geology and geological hazard investigation and evaluation, geological science and technology and comprehensive research, and geological data service and informatization, accounting for 58.5%, 11.1%, 19.1%, 10.1% and 1.2% of the total respectively.
In 2023, mineral exploration funds will be mainly invested in coal (1.972 billion yuan), uranium (1.179 billion yuan), gold (1.404 billion yuan), copper (871 million yuan), lead and zinc (863 million yuan), and iron (552 million yuan), accounting for 58.2% of the total investment in mineral exploration. Compared with 2022, the main types of minerals with increased input are nickel, lead and zinc, rare earth, copper, molybdenum, gold, iron, etc., and the main types of minerals with decreased input are graphite, phosphorus, etc.
According to the annual report, the national mineral exploration and mining rights transfer work continues to progress steadily. In 2023, 3,792 mineral exploration projects will be implemented, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%; 9.06 million meters of drilling work was completed, a year-on-year increase of 31.9%; There are 124 newly discovered mineral fields in the country, including 44 large, 52 medium-sized and 28 small-scale. The top 5 minerals in terms of the number of newly discovered mineral fields are: limestone for construction (16 sites), graphite (10 sites), limestone for cement (9 sites), granite for construction (7 sites), and ordinary fluorite (6 sites). In 2023, a total of 421 new non-oil and gas exploration rights will be established across the country; The area of the transfer is 4,386.4 square kilometers, and the contract amount is 99.06 billion yuan. From the perspective of transfer methods, there are 86 agreement methods and 335 bidding, auction and listing methods.
In addition, the annual report also reported on the capital investment and work progress in basic geological survey, hydrogeology, environmental geology and geological hazard investigation and evaluation, geological science and technology and comprehensive research, geological data service and informatization, as well as the geological exploration industry. According to the report, the income of geological survey units and the wages of employees of geological survey units across the country have achieved double growth. In 2023, the total income of geological exploration units across the country will be 394.939 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.1%; The total salary of employees in geological exploration units nationwide was 57.638 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%; The per capita salary was 136,600 yuan/year, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%.
The mining industry has selected the main key data in the "Annual Report" to help you "read in one picture" the "2023 National Non-oil Geological Exploration Statistical Annual Report". Let's take a look~