Rare earth Photo:VCG

About 40 percent of China's minerals, including nickel, cobalt and lithium posted an increase in reserve in 2022, and a total of 132 new mineral fields were found, a new report showed.

According to China Mineral Resources 2023 released on Thursday, 173 minerals were found across the country by the end of last year.

China's investment in oil and gas and non-oil and gas mineral exploration both reported growth in 2022, and important progress was made in the exploration of strategic minerals including gold, lithium and fluorite, it said.

China has completed the detection of the country's largest gold mine, Xiling gold mine in Laizhou, East China's Shandong Province, and confirmed 592.19 tons of gold reserves with a potential economic value of over 200 billion yuan ($27.74 billion), according to the China Gold Association (CGA).

In 2022, China's investment in geological exploration was 101 billion yuan, an increase of 3.8 percent year-on-year, the report said.

It said that both the country's fixed-asset investment in the industry and mineral output maintained stable growth last year. The country's supply of energy including coal, petroleum and natural gas has made effective progress, with growth in self-reliance and optimization in energy consumption structure.