China will start a six-year nationwide geoscience survey in early 2025 aiming to find natural resources to support the country’s quest for self-reliance.
The research initiative – called SinoProbe II – is being conducted at a cost of US$1 billion, aiming to create a subterranean map of the country, according to a report on the Science magazine website on Monday.
Thousands of researchers from a number of institutions will work together on the project, overseen by the China Geological Survey, and they are expected to drill to record-setting depths for the study.
Its focus is to help the country reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels and ores like iron and aluminium, according to the report.
“We need to firmly grasp resource security,” Dong Shuwen, a geologist with Nanjing University who came up with the SinoProbe project, was quoted as saying.
He said China’s shallower natural resources – those located within 500 metres (1,640ft) of the surface – were “almost depleted”.
Comments are closed.