The Yangtze River connects the upper and lower reaches, the left and right banks, and the main and tributary streams, forming a large economic and social system with a prominent ecological status and enormous development potential. Supporting and serving the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is the mission of geologists and the responsibility of geological survey units. From September 26 to 27, the Symposium on Regional Geological Coordination and Integration Serving the High-Quality Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, initiated by the Jiangsu Provincial Geological Bureau, was held in Nanjing. Academician Wang Yanxin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academician Shao Anlin of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and representatives from the Nanjing Center, Wuhan Center, and Chengdu Center of the China Geological Survey, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Xuzhou Mining Group, and geological survey units from 12 provinces (cities) along the Yangtze River, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Qinghai, totaling more than 70 representatives, jointly discussed development plans, cooperation, and the future of geology, and built the industry's first exchange platform focusing on the Yangtze River Economic Belt development strategy and covering all provincial geological survey units along the belt.

　　Promoting Mineral Exploration Breakthroughs and Serving as the Main Force in Energy and Resource Security

　　"The Yangtze River Economic Belt holds a significant strategic position in China's overall regional development pattern. It is also an important base for mineral resource development and a continuation area for strategic mineral resources, involving 10 important metallogenic belts and over 150 types of mineral resources. In the new era, promoting a new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is of great practical significance for ensuring China's energy and resource security, building a new development pattern, and supporting high-quality economic development." - Shao Anlin

　　He suggested that through systematic innovation methods such as strategic guidance and mechanism and system innovation, breakthroughs in key technologies and equipment, and innovation in green and zero-carbon development systems, we can continuously improve resource security capabilities and lead the high-quality development of China's mining industry. "We must firmly hold the 'rice bowl' of mineral resources in our own hands. We must make good use of the unique advantages of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, which spans east and west, connects north and south, and connects rivers and seas, to better connect domestic and international markets and utilize both types of resources." - Shao Anlin

　　At the symposium, several geological survey units introduced their mineral exploration achievements in recent years, especially since the launch of the new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs.

　　The Jiangxi Provincial Geological Bureau has newly discovered 31 important strategic mineral deposits and 26 large and medium-sized ore deposits. Since May 2021, through the implementation of the "large-scale battle" for the exploration of lithium-bearing porcelain stone mines in the Yichun area, the bureau has proven more than 10 million tons of associated lithium oxide resources, ranking first in the country; the exploration project of the Shicheng Zhaoshanli fluorite mine has explored a total of 6.08 million tons of resources, setting a new record for the largest fluorite mine resources in Jiangxi.

　　Since the implementation of the new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs, Guizhou has invested approximately 300 million yuan annually. In February this year, Guizhou launched the "rich ore fine mining" strategy, integrating and promoting the implementation of "precise exploration, precise matching, fine mining, and deep use of minerals." The Guizhou Provincial Bureau of Geology and Minerals has 26 new projects and 15 continuing projects in 2024; 55 projects are included in the 2025 inventory, accounting for 57% of the province's total inventory projects.

　　The Hunan Provincial Geological Institute focuses on implementing four special projects in Hunan: gold exploration in the "golden belt," lithium mine investigation and evaluation, increasing reserves of non-ferrous metals, and ensuring the supply of sand, gravel, and earth minerals. Four mineral types—antimony, tin, tungsten, and tantalum—have completed their 14th Five-Year Plan targets ahead of schedule, with a potential value exceeding 150 billion yuan.

　　Jointly Protecting the Yangtze River and Serving as a Vanguard in Ecological Civilization Construction

　　The Yangtze River possesses 2/5 of China's freshwater resources, 3/5 of its hydropower reserves, abundant aquatic biological resources, and enormous shipping potential. It is a national strategic water source and a golden waterway with the world's highest inland river freight volume.

　　Yangtze River Protection: The Role of Geology

　　Wang Yanxin believes that based on the concept of a vibrant Yangtze River, geological work for the Yangtze River's protection has two entry points—health and safety. On the one hand, through policy choices, promoting systematic changes in production and lifestyles to achieve the goal of a "healthy planet, healthy humanity"; on the other hand, through changes in development paths, transforming the food-energy-water feedback system (FEW system) towards more resilient food, energy, and water security. "High-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt must be considered with a macroscopic perspective and strategic thinking. Yangtze River protection should shift from 'surgical treatment' to 'health management.' This will undoubtedly be an area where geological work will continue to make progress and achieve remarkable results." - Wang Yanxin

　　Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, geologists have become an indispensable force in ecological civilization construction.

　　Over the years, the Anhui Provincial Bureau of Geology and Minerals has strengthened its green foundation, fought the battles to protect the land and water, and comprehensively protected the beautiful ecological environment of the Yangtze River. The bureau's undertaking of the integrated protection and restoration project of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, and sand in the Chaohu Lake Basin in Anhui Province—the Phase III Shibalianshu Wetland Restoration Project—was successfully selected as an excellent case for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration this year.

　　The Jiangsu Provincial Geological Bureau has spent ten years honing its skills, creating a leading technological system for ecological improvement of saline-alkali land. The two demonstration bases that have been built have improved more than 15,000 mu of land, with more than 8,000 mu reaching the standard of "ton-level good farmland." The overall yield per mu of salt-tolerant rice and wheat is among the highest in the country.

　　Improving Geological Disaster Prevention and Control and Serving as a Guardian of Economic and Social Development

　　The Yangtze River Economic Belt has diverse geomorphic units and complex geological conditions. Geological environmental problems such as active faults, karst collapse, landslides, debris flows, and ground subsidence are prominent, and the intensity of land development is significantly higher than the national average. Therefore, geological hazard assessment and monitoring, as well as resource and environmental carrying capacity, are particularly important.

　　In the upper reaches, the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Geology and Minerals has undertaken more than 3/4 of the city's detailed geological hazard surveys, intelligent monitoring and early warning, and major geological disaster control projects, as well as investigation projects in six districts and counties and along eight major tributaries of the Yangtze River, preliminary investigation and design work for 36 dangerous rocks threatening the main channel of the Yangtze River, and geological hazard professional monitoring and early warning operation projects in the Wuxia section of Wushan County and the Qutang Gorge section of Fengjie County. Major geological disaster control projects such as the Wuxia Banbiyan dangerous rock and the Jianchuandong dangerous rock have been completed.

　　In the middle reaches, the Hubei Provincial Geological Bureau has established a "1 (team) + 18 (detachments) + 1000" geological disaster emergency rescue team, achieving "three improvements" in emergency standby, emergency handling, and emergency rescue, and "three in place" in personnel, equipment, and emergency response. Successful emergency rescue operations included the Wufeng County "7.8" landslide, emergency rescue for Wuhan Metro Line 12, and the governance of collapse and falling rock hazards on a key section of G348 in Zigui County.

　　Downstream, the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources has established a provincial-level and 13 city-level geological disaster technology centers, and jointly established 3 backbone teams with the Jiangsu Provincial Emergency Management Department; it comprehensively uses "air-space-ground" integrated survey methods, and has compiled the country's first technical specification for multi-parameter monitoring of geological boreholes using optical fibers, realizing regional-site dual-scale prediction and early warning for the first time; it continues to strengthen the monitoring network, develops the "Geological Disaster Intelligent Prevention" platform, and has built the country's largest single landslide monitoring and early warning field test site in Muni Peak, Jiangsu Province...

　　Geologists are using their wisdom and sweat to weave a tight "safety net" for geological disaster prevention and control in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

　　Promoting technological innovation and accelerating the cultivation and development of new productive forces

　　The high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt depends on the support, improvement, and empowerment of new productive forces. At the meeting, how to cultivate new productive forces in geological exploration units also became a hot topic among the representatives.

　　A representative from the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources introduced that the bureau uses digital transformation as a lever to continuously promote the transformation and upgrading of geological exploration work. Starting in 2017, the bureau independently invested in the construction of the Yunnan Geological Big Data Service Platform, which has reached an internationally advanced level, and has built a complete underlying support system based on cloud platforms, big data platforms, GIS platforms, and AI platforms. Based on this, it continues to iterate towards geological specialization, playing a "combination punch" of data + industry + expertise, continuously empowering and enabling the geological industry.

　　On the one hand, the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources is building a think tank with influence in the geological and mineral industry. At the bureau level, it has established a geological and mineral expert committee and a geological disaster prevention and control expert committee, leading and undertaking scientific research projects, and carrying out scientific research on key core technologies in the fields of geology and minerals and geological disasters, promoting the transformation of technological innovation in the field of geology and minerals from "following" to "leading"; on the other hand, it strengthens the construction of advantageous and characteristic innovation platform systems, focusing on advantageous disciplines, and has established 14 research institutes integrating "production, learning, research, and application" in advantageous and specialized fields, promoting the cultivation of high-level scientific and technological innovation platforms.

　　At the meeting, 12 geological exploration units along the Yangtze River jointly signed the "Proposal for Regional Geological Synergistic and Integrated Cooperation to Serve the High-Quality Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt," further consolidating their efforts, forming a concerted effort, jointly expanding international markets, developing geological culture, and establishing cooperation mechanisms to ensure the continuous and efficient development of regional geological synergistic and integrated work, making the era of high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt even more splendid.