On September 10, Xu Dachun, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Natural Resources and Director of the China Geological Survey, revealed at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that since the 14th Five-Year Plan, China has organized and implemented a new round of major mineral exploration initiatives, with a total investment of nearly 450 billion RMB.  
At the themed press conference on 'High-Quality Completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan' held the same day, Xu Dachun disclosed that since the 14th Five-Year Plan, China has achieved significant breakthroughs in energy minerals, especially petroleum, natural gas, and uranium.  
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China newly discovered 10 large oil fields and 19 large gas fields. Meanwhile, deep coalbed methane has experienced major breakthroughs, with just the Ordos Basin adding more than 300 billion cubic meters of proven geological reserves, almost equal to the total additions of the past ten years. Major advances were also made in uranium mining, particularly with the discovery of two super-large uranium deposits in Jingchuan, Gansu, and Jiayin, Heilongjiang, solidifying the resource base of five major uranium mining areas including Ili and Ordos.  
Regarding bulk minerals, Xu Dachun stated that older resource bases have been revitalized, with the newly added reserves in Xiangyi Bauxite in Shanxi, Jiaodong Gold Mine in Shandong, Anben Iron Mine in Liaoning, Duobaoshan Copper Mine in Heilongjiang, and Julong and Duolong Copper Mines in Tibet being considerable, significantly extending the service life and operational years of these mines. New resource bases are also emerging, among which the Dadonggou Gold Mine in Liaoning Province has preliminary assessed gold resources of nearly 1,500 tons, potentially becoming another world-class gold mine in China following the Jiaodong Gold Mine in Shandong.  
Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, significant breakthroughs have also been made in the exploration of minerals for strategic emerging industries. Lithium is a core resource for new energy vehicles. China has discovered an 'Asian Lithium Belt,' stretching 2,800 kilometers from east to west across Sichuan, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Along this important rare metal metallogenic belt, multiple large and super-large lithium deposits have been found. China has also made breakthroughs in key technologies to extract lithium from potash brine and from low-grade lithium mica. Helium, used as a coolant and shielding gas, has wide applications in nuclear magnetic resonance, semiconductors, and aerospace. China previously relied mainly on imports, but through scientific and technological efforts, it has now developed a technological system to extract helium from natural gas, achieving a significant breakthrough from zero to one.