China seawater minerals technology has advanced after researchers completed kilogram-scale uranium extraction from real ocean environments, the Ministry of Natural Resources said.
The ministry said Chinese research institutes, universities and enterprises had also made progress in extracting lithium, deuterium and other trace elements from seawater.
Official estimates global uranium reserves in seawater at about 4.5 billion tonnes. That is more than 1,000 times known land-based uranium reserves.
The ministry said China’s seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization industry continued to expand as demand grew for alternative water and resource solutions.
Xiang Wenxi, director of the Institute of Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization, said China operates 167 seawater desalination projects.
He said those projects have a combined production capacity of 3.077 million tonnes per day.
Xiang said annual seawater use for industrial cooling had reached 193.36 billion tonnes, up 86.4 percent from 2020.
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China plans to develop seawater resource technologies and equipment during its 15th Five-Year Plan period from 2026 to 2030.
The plan includes stronger capabilities for extracting strategic elements from seawater to support resource security and emerging industries.
