China's Ministry of Land and Resources has released details of the reserves of domestic ‘crisis mines', or mines that were previously thought to have been exhausted but have since been reviewed again for their potential. Since 2004, these mines, many of which were explored in the 1950s, have started to be examined again with a view to further exploitation.
Accordingly, the amended mineral reserves of Chinese crisis mines include 5.3 billion mt of raw coal, 1.05 billion mt of iron ore, 11.26 million mt of manganese ore, 540,000 mt of chrome iron ore, 3.27 million mt of copper, 8.49 million mt of lead zinc, 16.41 million mt bauxite, 410,000 mt of tungsten, 330,000 mt of antimony, 669 mt of gold, 8,541 mt of silver and 270 million mt of phosphate ore.