China's natural resources
With a total surface area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China has abundant land resources and possesses strategic shares in various mineral resources. Due to its geologic preconditions, China has proved reserves of nearly all major minerals. As of 2022, proven reserves of iron ore in China had amounted to about 16 billion tons. But due to the low quality of its iron ore reserves, the demand of iron ore in China still heavily relies on iron ore imports.The domestic economy in China is largely based on energy-intensive heavy industrial production. In order to maintain its growth momentum, the country has subsequently increased its primary energy production to over 4.6 billion tons of coal equivalent as of 2022. China’s north-western regions such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, the so-called Chinese coal belt, not only produce huge amount of coal but also petroleum and natural gas. China invests billions yuan in geological exploration of resources every year, predominantly oil and gas. Among non-fossil resources, uranium and gold received the highest investment for geological exploration, around a billion yuan annually.
