China's "white oil" reserves have greatly increased! Development | New Energy | China
According to statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources, China's lithium ore reserves increased by 57% year-on-year in 2022, which is good news for China's lithium resource supply security, green and low-carbon transformation, and the development of new energy vehicles.
On the 14th, the Ministry of Natural Resources released a national mineral resource reserve statistics for 2022, showing that out of 163 mineral resources with confirmed reserves in China, nearly 40% of reserves have increased. The reserves of strategic emerging minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel increased by 57%, 14.5%, and 3% year-on-year, respectively, and the proven reserves of lithium mines increased significantly.
Bo Zhiping, Director of the Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said at a regular press conference that lithium is known as a green energy metal and "white oil", widely used in energy storage, chemical industry, medicine, metallurgy, electronics industry and other fields. With the global green and low-carbon transformation and the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the strategic position of lithium resources is increasingly prominent. Countries attach great importance to the security of lithium resource supply and have included it in the key mineral catalog. The statistical data for 2022 shows that China's lithium reserves have increased by 57% year-on-year, with Jiangxi's reserves surpassing Qinghai and Sichuan, ranking first in the country and accounting for 40% of the total. In 2022, Jiangxi accounted for 94.5% of the national lithium reserve increment. It is reported that global lithium resources are abundant but unevenly distributed, mainly in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Australia, China, and the United States. China is rich in lithium minerals, including salt lake brine lithium minerals, spodumene minerals and lepidolite minerals, but the overall grade is low, and high-quality lithium resources are less, which are mainly distributed in Jiangxi, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang and other provinces and regions, and a small amount of them are also distributed in Henan and Xinjiang. Bo Zhiping said that the main type of lithium deposit in Yichun, Jiangxi is lithium mica type, mostly low-grade lithium containing ceramic clay ore. Due to the thin covering layer, open-pit mining is often used. With the improvement of lithium extraction technology using lithium mica, costs have significantly decreased. At the same time, the demand for lithium battery new energy industry has increased, and the market development willingness has greatly increased. Therefore, Yichun Lithium Mine has rapidly released its obvious advantage in increasing supply. With the rapid growth of the development and utilization scale of lithium-containing ceramic clay mines, feldspar powder and lithium slag have grown significantly. Their scientific disposal and comprehensive utilization have become issues that require special attention and solution in the development of the new energy industry.