Guizhou advances mineral exploration with systematic approaches

Guizhou is advancing a new round of strategic mineral exploration with organizational management, digital empowerment, diversified support, and green exploration systems, making major progress since 2021 in surveying and developing minerals, including coal, phosphate, aluminum, manganese, and lithium.

The province's organizational management system strengthened top-level planning, with leadership identifying 16 key strategic minerals and designating 59 priority survey areas and 89 priority exploration zones, advancing projects in three phased stages.

Guizhou's digitally empowered exploration system uses cutting-edge methods and research to meet the needs of emerging, traditional, and specialized industries.

To ensure resources and funding, its diversified support system was implemented, including a provincial geological exploration fund. From 2021 to 2025, 2.1 billion yuan ($294 million) was invested in 244 exploration projects, yielding substantial results, with discovered phosphate and bauxite reserves each exceeding 10 percent of the province's total known resources.

Guizhou's environmentally responsible green exploration system also issued local standards for sustainable mineral and coalbed methane exploration, setting technical benchmarks and operational guidelines to safeguard the ecological baseline while advancing exploration activities.

Through these approaches, the province has positioned itself at the forefront of mineral resource development while balancing innovation, economic growth, and environmental protection.