Mountain quest reveals hidden riches

Lead and zinc, often found together as co-minerals, are silvery-white metals characterized by their suitable ductility and relatively low electrical conductivity among metals. With extensive use in industrial alloys, anticorrosion coatings, and radiation shielding applications, they experience huge global demand.

In 1965, the local geological survey bureau discovered the Lanping mine, which boasts reserves of lead and zinc exceeding 15 million metric tons. It remained the largest of its kind in China until 2016, when a mine in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region surpassed its record.

While China ranks among the top globally in reserves for lead and zinc, the per capita availability of these metals remains limited. Moreover, the rise of new energy vehicles has further intensified demand, particularly given their critical roles in battery technologies.

Pan Jiarong, a senior engineer at the Kunming General Survey of Natural Resources Center who leads the exploration project, emphasized that prospecting near existing mines is a "low-cost, high-return" strategy, providing benefits such as economic value, resource security, and ecological protection.

He pointed to the Olympic Dam deposit in Australia as an example, illustrating how it evolved from a copper mine into one of the world's largest deposits of copper, gold, uranium, and nickel through a series of discoveries.

"Preliminary literature indicates a high likelihood of mineralization in this region. In addition, the geological structures and metallogenic conditions of known deposits often mirror their surrounding areas. This offers the potential to streamline work by utilizing existing exploration data, such as geological maps, geochemical anomalies, and drilling records, thereby reducing exploration risks and costs," Pan said.

"If new ore bodies are discovered, development can quickly proceed by leveraging existing mining infrastructure, which minimizes environmental impact from additional construction, and generates economic returns," he said, adding that this approach can also enhance regional mineralization theory.