The China National Mineral Assessment Initiative

The assessment of the mineral resources by the China National Mineral Assessment Initiative was completed between 2007 and 2013. The initiative's aim is to compile mineral prospectivity maps and estimate the total (known and unknown) resources available and mineral types for 25 of the most prospective strategic minerals located in China. The project includes the construction of deposit models applied to various types of mineralisation, such as supergene, sedimentary, and hydrothermal mineralisation. The “Integrated information assessment” methods based on the “deposit model” approach was developed and is introduced in this contribution. Eighty mineral deposit models have been developed, documented, and included in a geographic information system (GIS). The models are applied to at least 1000 known deposits in China, and are used to calculate the geological parameters for and statistics of multiple spatial datasets for mineral deposits at a regional scale of 1:200,000. The initiative will be expanded in the future to an assessment of China's mineral potential to a minimum depth of <2000 m in anticipation of an increased demand for minerals in the future.