As much as 78 percent of China's petroleum reserves and 93 percent of natural gas reserves still wait to be verified, said sources with the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR).

Despite good mineralization conditions, China has to improve its exploration of mineral resources, said the MLR.

According to MLR statistics, 80 percent of China's more than 200,000 discovered mineralization points have not been assessed.

The proven reserves of coal, oil and gold is only one-fifth or one-fourth of the possible reserves of the country, said the MLR.

The exploration for mineral reserves in western China is quite undeveloped and the reserves in eastern China still need systematic exploration and investigation.

China has great potential for discovery of energy and metal reserves to feed its booming economy and more efforts should be made in resources exploration and development, said experts.

China has discovered 171 minerals with the reserves of 158 verified.

Source: Xinhua