The country will play a more active role in the international mineral market and "inevitably" become the world's largest consumer of mineral resources, they said.

In its annual report for 2002, the World Mineral Resource Strategy Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences warned of "possible threats to national security" if China relies too much on the international market for future supplies of mineral resources.

The report said China suffers from shortages in most major minerals, such as petroleum oil and copper.

The country's imports of petroleum oil increased by 63 per cent between 1993 and 2000.

Research centre director Wang Anjian emphasized in the report that China must tackle the problem of over-reliance on imported minerals, even though no country in history has carried out an industrial revolution while relying exclusively on its own mineral resources.

However, China is in a position where it could enjoy "considerable" self-sufficiency in mineral resources in the near future, he said.

The lack of special funds for in-depth geological surveys is also a major factor behind China's lack of mineral resources, said Wang.

The centre's report indicated that, of China's more than 200,000 locations with mining potential, only 20 per cent have undergone evaluation, the very foundation for exploitation operations. Therefore, Wang said he welcomed the country's western development campaign. He predicted it would support the Chinese economy for another two decades with new discoveries of mineral resources.

Wang's confidence is backed up by the fact that western China has much better geological conditions for mine formation than eastern China but its deposits are relatively untapped. That is why new deposits are easily discovered with a bit of effort, explained Wang.

Another factor is that the drilling depth of most Chinese mines is only 500 metres on average, while it is between 700 and 1,000 metres in developed countries. The utilization rate of mineral resources in China is also considerably lower than the world average.

Drilling 1 metre deeper might mean the collection of considerable extra resources, said Wang.

With efficient use of minerals, China could transform itself into an industrialized nation and have a per capita consumption of mineral resources in 2030 that is still less than that in advanced countries today, according to Wang.

Wang Dazhong, president of Tsinghua University, highlighted the importance of such development in China's energy industry.

The university last year committed itself to helping North China's Shanxi Province develop "a clean, more efficient and varied utilization of coal with higher added value," such as generating electricity and producing chemical products.

The province is one of China's major coal producers and produces one-third of China's total coal reserves. But it is predominantly low-priced crude coal that is mined and sold in the province.

The media in Shanxi quoted Wang Dazhong as saying the introduction of more advanced technology will achieve a more efficient use of the coal along with greater economic benefits, both of which are essential for the region's sustainable development.

(China Daily January 20, 2003)