Mineral resources are an important material basis for the progress of human civilization. In a long history of progressive process, mining has been an important factor to promote human civilization and progress, is a country's modernization of the material source. In the world, more than 95% of energy, more than 80% of industrial raw materials and more than 70% of agricultural means of production come from mineral resources.
As one of the countries with the longest history of developing and utilizing mineral resources, the development of China's mining industry has established indelible historical merits for the survival and development of the Chinese nation and the continuation of Chinese civilization for five thousand years.
Photo by Wang Ziyong
Mineral Resources Provide Material Basis for National Economy and People's Livelihood
At the beginning of the founding of New China, it was precisely because the country attached great importance to geological exploration and mining development, with the strong support of mineral resources such as oil, coal, and iron ore, which laid the foundation for the development of New China.
Since the reform and opening up, my country's mineral resources exploration and mining capacity and level have been continuously improved, which has made outstanding contributions to my country's economic construction, social development and the improvement of people's living standards. It is also the bulk metal mineral resources such as iron, copper, lead, and zinc that have laid and consolidated the foundation of my country's modern industry, agriculture and transportation. At present, China has become the world's largest producer, consumer and trading country of mineral products.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has taken the construction of ecological civilization as an important part of the overall layout of the "five in one" and the coordinated promotion of the "four comprehensive" strategic layout, and has deployed and carried out a series of fundamental and long-term work. Historic and overall changes have taken place in the exploration and development of mineral resources in China.
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the main social contradictions in China have been transformed into the contradiction between the people's growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development, describing the goal of "two centuries, in the" basic strategy ", it also puts forward the requirements and measures of" adhering to the basic national policy of saving resources and protecting the environment "," promoting the comprehensive conservation and recycling of resources "," supporting the economic transformation and development of resource-based areas "," forming a green development mode and lifestyle "," accelerating the reform of ecological civilization system and building a beautiful China. The realization of these goals and the implementation of the measures can not be separated from the strong support of mineral resources.
It can be said that the security of mineral resources, as an important part of the overall national security, is directly related to the country's economic security and modernization. The mining industry in the new era has more responsibilities, more arduous tasks, and clearer goals. It must not only serve the construction of ecological civilization, but also ensure resource security and provide support for high-quality economic and social development.
There are weaknesses in the protection of mineral resources.
After efforts in recent years, the reserves of important domestic mineral resources have increased significantly, but in general, relying on domestic resources is still unable to meet the demand, and the degree of dependence on foreign minerals will remain at a high level for a long time.
Especially under the new development pattern of taking the domestic big cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycle promoting each other, whether it is to basically realize modernization by 2035 or to build a socialist modern power in an all-round way by the middle of this century, it needs to be realized through high-quality development, and still needs a large amount of mineral resources to guarantee.
However, the security of mineral resources in China is not optimistic. my country's mineral resource endowment conditions are not good in themselves, and the per capita mineral resources are also insufficient. The characteristics of more lean ore and less rich ore, more difficult ore and less easy ore, and less large and super large ore and more small ore seriously restrict the development and utilization of my country's mining industry. With the improvement of level and efficiency, many bulk mineral products related to the national economy and people's livelihood remain highly dependent on foreign countries.
In 2020, despite the severe impact on world economic growth and global trade, the overall performance of China's imports of bulk mineral products is still "good". According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in 2020, imports of iron ore and its concentrates showed a trend of rising volume and price, imports of bulk mineral products such as coal and lignite, crude oil and natural gas showed a trend of increasing volume and falling prices, and imports of copper ore and its concentrates showed a trend of decreasing volume and increasing prices.
There is no doubt that with the continuous advancement of my country's modernization process and the continuous improvement of the socialist market economic system, mineral resources will become an important factor affecting the sustainable and high-quality development of my country's economy. Whether our country can obtain the needed mineral resources continuously, stably, timely, sufficient and economically will directly affect whether our country's economy and society can continue to develop with high quality.
Based on the domestic security of mineral resources
There is food in hand and no panic in heart. Only by firmly holding the rice bowl of mineral resources security in our own hands can we have the confidence and ability to ensure the security of national energy resources based on the country.
In fact, the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to resource security. When presiding over the first meeting of the Central National Security Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that we must adhere to the overall national security concept and embark on a path of national security with Chinese characteristics. He clearly pointed out that to build a national security system that integrates political security, homeland security, military security, economic security, cultural security, social security, scientific and technological security, information security, ecological security, resource security, and nuclear security. Among them, resource security is an important part of national security.
On May 24, 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during the sixth collective study of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee that it is necessary to strengthen the exploration, protection, and rational development of mineral resources, and improve the level of rational exploitation and comprehensive utilization of mineral resources.
On June 13, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic leading Group that energy security is an overall and strategic issue related to the country's economic and social development. it is vital to the prosperity and development of the country, the improvement of people's lives, and the long-term stability of society.
The ultimate goal of ensuring the security of national energy resources is to meet the needs of economic and social development for resources, for the survival, development and great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Domestic resource reserves are the "ballast stone" of China's resource security ". In order to gain a foothold in China and improve the degree of mineral resources security, the situation of "living beyond our means" of mineral resources in China has been alleviated by organizing and implementing the strategic action of prospecting breakthrough.
"The current mining situation in China is still quite grim. Since 2013, domestic investment in geological exploration (Note: non-oil and gas minerals) has continued to decline, with national investment in geological exploration of 17.4 billion billion yuan in 2018, a decrease of 12.4 percent year-on-year. Investment in non-ferrous metal mines has declined year after year since 2014, and in 2018, while industry-wide fixed asset investment has stabilized, mine investment is still down from the previous year." At the second National Mine Resources-Environment-Ecological Restoration Conference and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Mine Geology Professional Committee of the Chinese Geological Society, Chen Quanxun, president of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, suggested: to increase prospecting and storage to ensure national resources Security; realize the intensive development of resources and focus on building green mines.
In recent years, some localities and relevant departments have equated ecological civilization with ecological protection, and simply understood ecological protection as multiple red lines for ecological protection, setting up more protected areas, and prohibiting all activities including mineral exploration and development.
Chen Yuchuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, suggested that the current green exploration and green development technology can fully meet the needs of ecological protection.
According to the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035", my country will implement a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions.
"At present, China's economy has shifted from the stage of rapid growth to the stage of high-quality development, and the status and role of mining in high-quality development is becoming more and more prominent. Many new energy, emerging industries, ecological construction and livelihood security and other raw materials and products from mineral products, the rigid demand for resources still exists and put forward higher requirements, it is necessary to create a new era of China's mining development upgrade version that is compatible with the requirements of high-quality development." Relevant people suggest that it is necessary to actively implement the mineral resources guarantee strategy, adhere to the principle of saving first and reserve first, speed up the reform and development of geological prospecting units on the basis of a good survey of the national conditions of mineral resources, and continue to increase prospecting efforts. we will strive to form a number of resource reserves, strengthen the degree of domestic mineral resources guarantee, and provide a solid resource foundation and internal driving force for the high-quality development of mining industry. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out international mining cooperation and establish a stable, safe and diversified mineral resources guarantee system and a mining system that is compatible with the trend of economic globalization.
If the foundation is not strong, the earth will shake. Whether it is the construction of ecological civilization or high-quality development, these must be built on a solid foundation of resource protection, now and in the future.
Website Editor: Gong Li
