Qinghai's "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" will spend more than 10 billion yuan for prospecting

The Qinghai provincial government issued a press release on February 28 stating that during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, the province will strive to invest more than 10 billion yuan in ore prospecting, and will strive to invest 2 billion yuan in geological exploration this year.

During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, Qinghai Province is expected to newly discover 30-35 new mining areas and census bases and form 2-3 new resource-rich areas; the new mineral resources reserves include 100 million tons of oil and 200 billion square meters of natural gas. 500 million tons of coal, 100 million tons of iron, 1 million tons of copper, 2 million tons of lead and zinc, 200 tons of gold, and 100 million tons of potassium chloride.

By 2015, Qinghai will strive to achieve a total of 150 million tons of mineral resources development, an average annual growth rate of over 12% in the mining industry, a total output value of over 50 billion yuan, and a total number of mines under 1,200, with large and medium-sized mines. At 9%, the comprehensive recovery and comprehensive utilization index of mining resources increased by 2-3%.

In 2010, Qinghai's geological survey investment reached 1.29 billion yuan. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, 1,230 geological survey projects were planned and 3.416 billion yuan was invested.