Focusing on “strategic minerals,” we must remain vigilant to avoid crossing the red line that jeopardizes the security of mineral resource supply.
Release date:
2021-08-18 16:25
Source:
Mineral resource security has been a hot topic in recent years. China’s demand for mineral resources remains persistently high, and the country is characterized by four salient features: small per capita mineral endowment; large demand and consumption; relatively high external dependence and associated security risks; and declining domestic resource supply capacity and overall resource‑security resilience.
At present, China’s dependence on foreign sources for a range of mineral resources—including iron, copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, manganese, nickel, and potash—has approached or exceeded the 50% threshold, which serves as a critical alert level. Against the backdrop of unprecedented global changes in a century and an increasingly complex international environment, the situation regarding the security of China’s mineral resources remains grave.
Strategic mineral resources, or strategic critical metals, are a newly proposed resource concept on the international stage. They refer to a category of metallic elements and their associated deposits that are essential to contemporary society yet face high risks in terms of secure supply, and are widely used in new energy, advanced technologies, and national defense and military industries.
With the advancement of technology and the rise of emerging industries, global demand for strategic minerals and critical metals is set to surge over the coming decades, further exacerbating supply‑demand imbalances. In the years ahead, international competition in mineral resources and technological innovation will increasingly center on the contest for access to these critical materials.
China’s National Mineral Resources Plan (2016–2020) for the first time established a list of strategic minerals, designating 24 mineral resources as strategic.
In 2018, the United States also released a list of 35 strategic minerals—known as the Final List of Critical Minerals 2018—that are deemed essential to the U.S. economy and national security.
Due to differences in national conditions, the definition of strategic mineral resources also varies.
The “critical minerals” identified by the United States are those that play a vital role in the country’s economic and national security, whose supply chains are vulnerable to disruption, and whose scarcity could have significant adverse impacts on the economy or national security.
China’s strategic mineral resources catalog primarily addresses two key issues—supply risks and substitutability—and is subdivided into three categories: first, resource‑shortage minerals, such as cobalt, rhenium, and the platinum group elements; second, technology‑constraint minerals, including beryllium, titanium, gallium, and niobium; and third, advantage minerals that can help regulate international markets, such as rare earth elements, indium, and germanium.
At present, China’s proven reserves of many major mineral resources are nearing depletion, while the resource base of emerging critical minerals remains poorly defined, and both mining and beneficiation–smelting technologies urgently require improvement. Against the backdrop of today’s complex international geopolitical landscape—particularly the new global order reshaped by the COVID‑19 pandemic—the competition for resource dominance is intensifying. Consequently, “relying on domestic resources while leveraging overseas sources” will continue to be the fundamental strategy for safeguarding China’s resource security.
According to reports, China plans to enshrine the strengthening of energy, strategic metal, and grain reserves in its ongoing formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The security of critical resources, including strategic minerals, is also set to be elevated to a national strategy.
At present, the National Mineral Resources Plan (2021–2025) is nearing completion. It calls for strengthening the domestic and international balance between supply and demand for critical minerals, enhancing the strategic planning of exploration and development activities for mineral resources that underpin new infrastructure and emerging industries, and reinforcing a mindset that prioritizes securing a domestic resource base while actively pursuing international resource opportunities. Accelerating the establishment of a new development paradigm characterized by “dual circulation” for strategic mineral resources has become an urgent priority.
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