Review and Prospect of Xinjiang ″14th Five-Year Plan″ Geological Exploration

During the ″14th Five-Year Plan″ period, the new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs was fully implemented. The autonomous region has seen a continuous increase in geological exploration investment. The ″Three Bureau Merger″ led to the establishment of the Xinjiang Geological Bureau. With the joint efforts of the bureau′s geological exploration units, the geological exploration units from other regions aiding Xinjiang, and research institutions, Xinjiang′s geological exploration still achieved remarkable results. The achievements in oil and gas exploration were continuously consolidated and improved. New progress was made in the exploration of oil-rich coal. Giant resource reserves of lithium, ilmenite, zirconium-hafnium, high-purity quartz, and fluorite were discovered. Breakthroughs were made in the two gold belts in the north and south. The Kekegilega gold mine is expected to become the first super-large gold mine in the Kunlun Mountains. The exploration of chromite achieved a key breakthrough, playing a bottom-line role in meeting the country′s ″14th Five-Year Plan″ chromite exploration targets. The search for water in the desert provided strong support for the ″lock-edge″ project. The water conservancy, engineering, environment and disaster services significantly contributed to improving people′s livelihoods and local economic development. Basic research and the application of high-tech promoted the process of mineral exploration breakthroughs. The ″15th Five-Year Plan″ period is a crucial time for laying a solid foundation for the basic realization of socialist modernization and making comprehensive efforts. It is also an important stage for the transformation and upgrading of geological work and achieving high-quality development. Based on the achievements of the ″14th Five-Year Plan″, in accordance with the autonomous region′s mineral resources overall planning and the deployment plan for the new round of mineral exploration strategic breakthroughs, focusing on the ″five major strategic positioning″ entrusted by the central government, adhering to the main attack on the ″Kunlun-Alashan″ area and deepening the exploration around the Junggar and Tianshan regions, concentrating efforts on strategic minerals, and conducting the ″mineral exploration campaign″ in a solid manner, with the goal of exploring large and super-large ore deposit clusters, we will fully support the autonomous region in completing the strategic mineral exploration tasks assigned by the Ministry of Natural Resources for the ″15th Five-Year Plan″ period, and build a national energy and resource strategic guarantee base.