OREANDA-NEWS. November 29, 2011. The Geological Prospecting Bureau of Hubei Province will concentrate on the three areas -- middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Qin-Hang Metallogenic Belt and the western region of the province -- in finding mineral resources during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period (2011-15).

By 2015, Hubei is set to discover more than 100 deposits, increasing reserves of iron ore by 275 million tons, copper by 750,000 tons, lead and zinc by 2.10 million tons, gold by 47 tons, molybdenum by 200,000 tons, rare earth by 500,000 tons, potassium salt by 60 million tons, coal by 69 million tons and pyrite by 110 million tons.