"In other words, little is known about the majority of the country's solid mineral resources," said Shao Juenian, director of the ministry's Department of Mineral Resource Reserves.

"While the existence of the majority of the mineral resources has been theoretically proved, its economic potential is still beyond our knowledge."

Shao based his comments on the report, which concludes four years of work by the ministry to measure the country's solid mineral resources against a set of new standards accepted by the United Nations (UN).

China is the first country in the world to not only successfully revise its old standards under related UN rules, but also apply the revised standards.

According to the report, only 18.9 percent of the country's detected solid mineral resources have had defined reserves, laying a rigid foundation for future exploitation.

As for the country's 148 solid mineral varieties, only 10.63 percent of them have had their reserves clarified.

"Therefore, though this round of investigation proves the country boasts rich mineral resources, there is no real reason for joy, especially in consideration of the huge amount of mineral resources needed to further fuel the country's fast economic growth," Shao said.

(China Daily July 10, 2003)