Eight Ministries Issue Plan to Strengthen Nonferrous Resource Exploration

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Commerce and five other departments have jointly issued the Work Plan for Stable Growth of the Nonferrous Metals Industry (2025-2026) (hereinafter the Work Plan).

The Work Plan proposes that in 2025-2026, the value added of the nonferrous metals industry should grow by about 5% annually, economic returns should maintain a positive trend, output of the ten major nonferrous metals should grow by about 1.5% annually, positive progress should be made in domestic resource development of copper, aluminum and lithium, output of recycled metals should exceed 20 million tonnes, the supply capacity of high-end products should be continuously enhanced, and the level of green, low-carbon and digital development should continue to rise.

The Work Plan sets out measures in five areas:

—Promote efficient resource utilization and raise the level of resource security. Implement the new round of the strategic action for prospecting breakthroughs, strengthen the survey and exploration of resources such as copper, aluminum, lithium, nickel, cobalt and tin, and produce a batch of new prospecting results. Improve the competitive transfer of mining rights and release mining rights in a scientific and orderly manner. Support research on green and efficient mining, beneficiation and smelting technologies and equipment for low-grade, co-associated and refractory resources, and raise the recovery rate of resources, the recovery rate of beneficiation and the comprehensive utilization rate.

—Strengthen industrial scientific and technological innovation and enhance effective supply capacity. Focusing on the needs of key industry chains, push forward breakthroughs in high-quality raw materials such as ultra-high-purity metals, copper alloy structural-functional integrated materials, precious metal functional materials and high-end new rare earth materials, and improve the comprehensive performance of products such as aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy structural materials and cemented carbide and its products.

—Expand effective investment and promote industry transformation and upgrading. Accelerate mineral resource development projects in accordance with laws and regulations, and advance energy-saving, pollution-reduction and carbon-reduction upgrades in industries such as alumina, electrolytic aluminum, copper smelting, lead smelting and zinc smelting. Carry out standardized safe disposal and resource utilization of bulk solid waste such as red mud, lithium slag and high-alumina fly ash. Launch the “AI + nonferrous metals” initiative and accelerate the building of high-quality industry datasets. Speed up the development of quality management standards for key products such as copper and aluminum, covering quality traceability, quality grading and quality control capability. Actively participate in the formulation of international standards for industries such as lithium, rare earths and magnesium.

—Promote the upgrading of bulk metal consumption. Focusing on emerging industries, accelerate the application validation of high-end products such as high-purity gallium, tungsten cemented carbide and all-solid-state battery materials, and advance the innovative application of frontier materials.

—Deepen opening-up and cooperation and raise the level of international development. Guide and help enterprises to actively respond to unreasonable foreign trade restrictive measures, guide the compliant export of deep-processed products such as high-end new materials and products, and improve product quality and technical levels. Optimize international cooperation models for minerals such as copper, lead and zinc, support nonferrous metals enterprises in signing long-term procurement agreements with foreign mining and transport companies, and increase imports of primary products such as anode copper and alumina. Support enterprises that meet industry norms in carrying out processing trade in copper concentrate and other products.

Next, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will work with relevant departments to strengthen central-local coordination and departmental linkage, increase policy support, and solidly promote the implementation of various policy measures to better support the stable growth of the nonferrous metals industry.

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