en.Wedoany.com Report on Mar 30th, Resource security is a matter of national importance, and strategic minerals are the foundation of industry. At a critical juncture where China's steel industry continues to lead the world in scale, iron ore import dependency remains high, and pressure to secure the supply of key strategic minerals is prominent, a standard development project that fills a gap in China's industry and concerns the nation's overall resource strategy has officially commenced on the land of Panxi.
On March 2nd, with the official issuance of the second batch of recommended national standard plans and related foreign language version plans for 2026, the Chinese standard "Technical Code for the Recovery of Valuable Elements from Ultra-Low-Grade Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite Ore" was formally approved for development. It is scheduled to be completed and released for implementation by the end of 2027, becoming the first technical Chinese standard in the field of mining, beneficiation, and comprehensive utilization of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore in China.
On March 20th, the kick-off meeting for the development of the Chinese standard "Technical Code for the Recovery of Valuable Elements from Ultra-Low-Grade Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite Ore" was held in Xichang, Sichuan. The meeting was jointly organized by the China Vanadium and Titanium Industry Alliance, the National Technical Committee for Comprehensive Utilization of Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite Ore Standardization, and Chongqing Iron and Steel Xichang Mining Co., Ltd. Nearly 70 representatives from across the entire industry chain gathered both online and offline to jointly plan pathways to break through the bottlenecks in the development of China's strategic resources.
On March 21st, Xin Hongbin, Secretary-General of the China Vanadium and Titanium Industry Alliance, gave an exclusive interview to a reporter from China Metallurgical News, systematically elaborating on the background, strategic significance, development challenges, timeline, and implementation path of this standard. He comprehensively explained how this standard will activate China's over 30 billion tons of dormant "inactive ore".
"It's Not Just an Economic Calculation, But Also a Political and Security Calculation"
Xin Hongbin pointed out that the development of this standard is not only a breakthrough at the technical level but also a crucial step in implementing China's resource security strategy. Its core strategic significance is concentrated in "three breakthroughs".
First, it aims to break through the resource "bottleneck". China has long been dependent on iron ore imports with high external dependency, creating immense pressure on the "food security" of the steel industry. This standard aims to revitalize China's massive reserves of ultra-low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore, enhance the self-sufficiency capacity of domestic strategic resources, and firmly secure the initiative for resource security in China's own hands.
Second, it aims to break through the development challenges of "inactive ore". China currently has over 30 billion tons of ultra-low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore that has long been idle due to its extremely low grade, complex composition, high technical difficulty in recovery, and lack of unified specifications. This standard will provide an authoritative technical code for "tackling the hard nut", transforming century-old dormant resources into China's strategic wealth.
Third, it aims to break through the shortfall in industry chain standards. As the first technical Chinese standard in the field of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore mining and beneficiation in China, this standard will fill an industry gap, guide the industry's transition from "eating fine grains" to "eating coarse grains", and build a more secure, reliable, and self-sufficient backup system for China's strategic resources.
Speaking about the value of revitalizing the 30 billion tons of "inactive ore", Xin Hongbin emphasized: "This is a huge potential wealth. Although the specific economically recoverable reserves need technical verification, the standard itself is the 'golden key' to activating these resources. By unifying recovery technical codes, marginal resources that were previously unusable can be transformed into effective supply. In the long run, this will significantly reduce the steel industry's dependence on overseas iron ore and provide solid domestic support for industrial security."
"This is not just an economic calculation, but also a political and security calculation," Xin Hongbin stated firmly. Ultra-low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore represents potential resources in peacetime and serves as an important strategic resource backup for China in extreme situations. After the implementation of this standard, it can ensure rapid development when needed; simultaneously, it achieves the thorough extraction of valuable elements such as iron, vanadium, titanium, chromium, and cobalt, significantly enhancing the resilience and self-sufficiency of China's critical minerals supply chain, fundamentally avoiding being "constrained by others".
From "A Myriad of Differences" to "Unified Rules"
Xin Hongbin admitted that it took a full two years from the application to the approval of this standard, with the greatest difficulty lying in building technical consensus.
The development of ultra-low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite ore involves the entire process chain including geological exploration, mining, beneficiation, environmental protection, and comprehensive utilization, featuring long technical chains and high coupling. Furthermore, ore properties and occurrence conditions vary significantly across China's major production regions like Panzhihua in Sichuan, Chengde in Hebei, and Xinjiang. The varying process routes and equipment levels among different enterprises make it difficult to standardize with a single model. To overcome this challenge, the standard development working group, relying on the platform of the China Vanadium and Titanium Industry Alliance, pooled the wisdom of its 127 member units. After multiple rounds of research, demonstration, on-site verification, and iterative improvements, they ultimately established a core technical route characterized by "foundational, scientific, and leading" principles, standardizing and codifying complex process flows, successfully pushing for the project's approval.
Xin Hongbin explained that to ensure the standard's representativeness, balance, and universality, the working group adhered to two core strategies: First, assembling a nationwide team of participating developers. The kick-off meeting already brought together over 50 units from major production regions across the country, including Chongqing Iron and Steel Xichang Mining, Panzhihua Steel, LB Group, Chengde Jingcheng Mining, and Xinjiang Shunzheng Vanadium and Titanium, covering market entities of different scales and from different regions across the entire industry chain, fully absorbing frontline practical experience. Second, adhering to the "commonality + specificity" principle. Setting unified national thresholds for core indicators such as safety baselines, environmental requirements, and resource recovery rates, while allowing for differentiated design of process parameters tailored to different ore types and mining areas. This approach ensures both "equal treatment" and "adaptation to local conditions", guaranteeing the standard is scientifically feasible and easy to implement.
He further elaborated that to promote high-quality development in the industry, the standard will set three mandatory technical thresholds: First, a green environmental threshold: specifying requirements for zero wastewater discharge, safe operation of tailings ponds, and comprehensive utilization of solid waste, encouraging the use of tailings for producing construction sand and gravel to drive green transformation. Second, a techno-economic threshold: setting reasonable recovery rate indicators to prevent low-level, predatory mining. Third, an equipment intelligence threshold: encouraging the adoption of automated, intelligent beneficiation equipment to guide the industry's upgrade towards high-end and intelligent development, resolutely preventing outdated production capacity.
Xin Hongbin outlined the standard's development timeline and roadmap to the China Metallurgical News reporter, stating that a strict responsibility system will be established to ensure all tasks are completed on time and with quality, firmly holding the "rear wall" (deadline).
"The vitality of a standard lies in its implementation," Xin Hongbin stated. After the standard is released, the China Vanadium and Titanium Industry Alliance will fully leverage its platform integration advantages, focusing on three key tasks: First, promoting technology to reduce costs. Relying on R&D, design, and production units within the alliance to promote mature common technologies, significantly lowering trial-and-error costs and technical barriers for enterprises. Second, strengthening support with financial services. Partnering with financial institutions to provide green financial support for enterprises adopting the new standard and technologies to develop "inactive ore", solving funding challenges. Third, optimizing services through platform support. Establishing a public service platform to provide integrated services including standard interpretation, technical consultation, and personnel training, enabling enterprises to dare to use, be able to use, and know how to use the standard.
Laying a Solid Foundation for Securing Industrial and Supply Chain Security
Xin Hongbin believes this standard will act as a "catalyst" for industrial upgrading, promoting the low-carbon, intelligent, and high-end transformation of China's vanadium-titanium industry. Specifically, through comprehensive utilization paths like producing sand and gravel aggregate from tailings, solid waste stockpiling can be reduced, vigorously developing a circular economy. The standard sets higher requirements for process control precision, compelling enterprises to introduce intelligent beneficiation systems to improve efficiency and reduce human error. Through refined process specifications, while recovering iron, high-value-added elements like vanadium, titanium, cobalt, and nickel can be efficiently separated, pushing products to extend from primary raw materials to high-end functional materials.
Xin Hongbin indicated that from "eating fine grains" to "tackling the hard nut", China's vanadium-titanium resource development will undergo a revolutionary transformation: In the past, reliance on high-grade ore led to rapid resource depletion and unsustainability; in the future, it will comprehensively enter a new era of "broad-spectrum utilization, mining both rich and poor ores". Resource utilization rates will multiply, forming a new industrial ecosystem characterized by high efficiency, low energy consumption, and full-element utilization. This will propel China from being a major vanadium-titanium resource country to a strong vanadium-titanium resource power, thereby reshaping the global vanadium-titanium resource supply landscape. As the first national-level technical standard in China's vanadium-titanium magnetite ore mining and beneficiation field, this standard completely ends the history of having "no standards to follow, no rules to abide by" in this sector. It is a milestone project for breaking the "inactive ore" dilemma, safeguarding China's resource security, and promoting the high-quality development of the vanadium-titanium industry.
Currently, under the coordinated promotion by the China Vanadium and Titanium Industry Alliance and the joint efforts of the entire industry, the development of this standard is progressing steadily. With its official release and implementation, China's over 30 billion tons of dormant vanadium-titanium resources will enter a new phase of standardized, green, intelligent, and efficient development, laying a solid resource foundation for securing industrial and supply chain security, building a strong manufacturing nation, and achieving high-quality development.
