The Ministry of Land and Resources held a press conference on February 27, stating that data obtained from surveys and evaluations of more than 14,000 mines show that the level of economical and intensive utilization of 22 important mineral resources in China has been continuously improving, and the indicators of mining recovery rate, ore dressing recovery rate, and comprehensive utilization rate for important minerals continue to improve.

 

    This conclusion was reached after the Ministry of Land and Resources completed the field surveys, data verification, and on-site inspections for the "three rates" survey and evaluation of 22 important mineral resources, including national oil and gas, coal, iron, gold, and potash. A total of more than 14,000 producing mines were selected for this survey and evaluation, including about 8,200 coal mines and about 5,700 metal and nonmetal mines. The survey and evaluation results basically represent the current status of the "three rates" and mining and processing technologies for China's major mineral types, reflecting three main characteristics:

 

    The mining grades of major mines are gradually decreasing, mining depths are gradually increasing, mining recovery rates are basically stable, and some mineral types have slightly improved. Taking iron ore as an example, the iron ore mining recovery rate in 2011 was 91.35%, 1.28 percentage points higher than in 1999.

 

    The ore dressing recovery rates of important mines are generally good. Although feed grades have decreased significantly, ore dressing recovery rates have remained basically unchanged; where feed grades remain unchanged, ore dressing recovery rates have increased noticeably. For example, the feed grade of the Jiangxi Hukeng Tungsten Mine dropped from 0.45% in 1999 to 0.34% in 2011, but the recovery rate remained basically around 87.2%.

 

    The utilization of associated and co-existing elements in large and medium-sized mines has been increasing, the practice of extracting the "main" and discarding the "by-product" has changed somewhat, and the comprehensive utilization rate has been continuously improving. In 1999, the Fengshan Copper Mine processing plant could only recover the gold, silver, and sulfur components in the mine; by 2011, it had achieved full recovery and utilization of co-existing components such as gold, silver, sulfur, and molybdenum. The recovery rates of gold and silver increased from 60% and 70% in 1999 to 66.7% and 71.4% in 2011, respectively, and the recovery rates of newly recovered sulfur and molybdenum were 76.65% and 47.03%, respectively.

 

    The Ministry of Land and Resources stated that at the national level, it mainly promotes the conservation and comprehensive utilization of mineral resources through three links: "establishing standards, promoting technology, and strengthening supervision." Since 2012, the Ministry of Land and Resources has issued "three rates" standards for multiple important minerals and established a "red line" for mineral resource utilization; it has carried out batch promotion and deployment of advanced and applicable technologies, improved the technology conversion rate and popularization rate, and received welcome and support from all sectors of society, especially mining enterprises; it has fully implemented the linkage between compensation fee collection and mining recovery rates, strictly conducted annual inspections of exploration and mining activities by mining right holders, actively promoted informationization construction such as the annual inspection information reporting system for mineral resource exploration and mining, appointed the fourth batch of national-level mineral supervisors, and urged mining right holders to carry out dynamic detection of mine reserves as required.