On February 19, reporters learned from the special achievement report meeting of the National Mineral Resources Potential Evaluation Project held by the Development Research Center of the China Geological Survey that the national geochemical exploration data application research has innovatively adopted geochemical quantitative prediction methods to predict China's potential copper resources at 180 million tons. This achievement pioneers nationwide medium-scale geochemical quantitative prediction for mineral resources evaluation in China, marking an important step in China's geochemical exploration from qualitative to quantitative prediction.

 

　　The national copper geochemical quantitative prediction research compiled the copper geochemical quantitative prediction results completed by all provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions), as well as the copper geochemical quantitative prediction research results of the Middle-Lower Yangtze River metallogenic belt, the Gangdise metallogenic belt in Tibet, and the "Sanjiang" metallogenic belt in eastern Tibet. The compiled results were carried out from two aspects: known copper deposits and copper prediction areas, both analyzing the spatial distribution characteristics of indicators such as quantity, resource amount, scale, and deposit type. Finally, information such as the quantity and resource amount of copper deposits and prediction areas was presented in the form of a national copper resource potential prediction map. A total of 1,184 copper prediction areas were predicted nationwide, with predicted potential resources of about 180 million tons, which is 1.86 times the total estimated resources of China's 180 known copper deposits (98.005 million tons).

 

　　It is understood that the national geochemical exploration data application research is one of the 47 work projects of the National Mineral Resources Potential Evaluation. The project collected and integrated massive amounts of data, information, and scientific research results from decades of national geochemical exploration, providing abundant information resources for applied research in geochemical mineral resources evaluation. The project also established 734 geochemical prospecting models for 11 minerals with remarkable prospecting results using geochemical methods, including tungsten, tin, molybdenum, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, antimony, and rare earths; delineated 4,941 geochemical prospecting prediction areas nationwide; completed more than 48,000 geochemical series maps of prediction areas; and delineated more than 3,000 prospecting target areas, providing detailed and reliable geochemical basis for long-term mineral exploration planning, resource potential evaluation, and further exploration work deployment.