Analysis of long-term trend of non-energy mineral exploration in China

This paper tracked the changes happened to exploration expenditures，drilling，newly-discovered ore fields，and newly-discovered reserves & resources，during the past years from 1981 to 2015.Non-energy mineral exploration experienced four stages：steadily developing，continually glooming，rapid developing and rapid falling.According to the relationship between the profits to total industrial costs for mining industry and mineral exploration，the current falling trend will probably last in the next several years.During the rapid industrialization stage，the importance of nonferrous metal and ferrous metal minerals rose relatively，while precious metal minerals and rare earth elements become more important as China enters the later stage of industrialization.As time went on，the amount or quantity of newly-discovered ore fields and resource reserves declined on the whole for the same exploration expenditures.Under the market economy，the capital investment in exploration is closely dependent upon the economic development，mineral market and mineral development，and the changing trend of exploration expenditures is similar to the ratio of profits to total industrial costs for mining industry with a lag of 1～2 years.