China seeks to expand extraction of strategic minerals from seawater

This photo taken on July 3, 2025 shows a seawater desalination workshop of Shandong Lubei OriginWater Desalination Co., Ltd. in Chengkou Town, Wudi County of east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Shao Kun)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Natural Resources on Monday released a report highlighting new progress in the country's utilization of seawater, while also shedding light on the huge reserve of strategic minerals contained in seawater and the nation's plans to expand the extraction of such resources through technological progress.

According to the report, China has successfully achieved kilogram-scale extraction of uranium from real ocean environments. Additionally, domestic research institutes, universities and enterprises have made breakthroughs in the fundamental theories and key technologies concerning the extraction of lithium, uranium, deuterium and other trace elements.

Global uranium reserves in seawater are estimated at about 4.5 billion tonnes, over a thousand times the known land-based reserves.

As a strategic emerging industry, China's seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization sector as a whole is growing steadily, the report noted.

According to Xiang Wenxi, director of the Institute of Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization located in north China's Tianjin Municipality, China currently has 167 desalination projects with a total capacity of 3.077 million tonnes per day. Meanwhile, the annual volume of seawater used for industrial cooling purpose has reached 193.36 billion tonnes, an increase of 86.4 percent from 2020.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), China will promote the iteration of relevant technology and equipment and build up technological reserves for extracting strategic elements from seawater, Xiang said.