In China, most of the mineral deposits had been discovered by naked
eyes before 1980s. Exploration geochemistry has made more important
contribution to the new mineral discoveries after 1980s. Fig. 17 shows
proportion of 817 new deposits discovered by follow-up exploration
for the targets delineated by different methods in China from 1981 to
2000 according to statistic results by the former Ministry of Geology
and Mineral Resources of the People's Republic of China. As time goes
by, mineral exploration in concealed terrains which occupy 42% of
China's territory is becoming important. Fig. 18 shows the number of
newly-discovered deposits within the targets delineated by geochemical
methods in China from 1981 to 2008 according to statistics by the
China Geological Survey. 219 new ore deposits have been discovered
at covered terrains from 1981 to 2008, occupying 25% of the total number
of 881 new mineral deposits that have been discovered by geochemical
methods in China.