Walk Well on the Long March of the New Era | The Green Hills Bear Witness: Our Long March in the New Era

The pioneering of every journey is inseparable from the guidance of the spiritual torch. Over eighty years ago, the Long March of the Red Army forged an enduring spiritual monument with their passion and unwavering faith. Today, on the “Long March Road” of a new era, we too must draw strength from our red heritage, empower ourselves with the spirit of revolution, and continue writing chapters of vigorous advancement on our respective paths.

To carry forward the red gene and promote the revolutionary spirit, and to greet the Group’s First Party Congress with a spirited and energetic attitude, we’ve launched a special column titled “Walking Well on the Long March of the New Era.” We’ll be periodically sharing reflections and practical experiences from Party members at the Geophysical Exploration Institute. Here, you won’t find empty slogans—only the steadfast dedication of frontline Party members at exploration sites, their relentless pursuit in technological breakthroughs, and their sense of responsibility in safeguarding the nation’s resource security. They infuse the spirit of the Long March into every calibration of geophysical instruments, weave it into every report on deep-earth mineral exploration, and embody it in every kilometer traveled to ensure energy security.

May these words—laden with the earthy scent of the land and soaked in the sweat of hard work—help us understand that the Long March of the new era is a steadfast commitment to our original aspirations, a courageous determination to overcome all difficulties, and, above all, a vivid testament to how generations of geophysical explorers have embodied their loyalty through practical actions and continued writing glorious chapters with their sense of responsibility.

We look forward to journeying together with you, feeling the warmth of faith between the lines, drawing strength and motivation from the power of role models, and collectively walking well the Long March that belongs to our generation.

The green hills stand as witness: Our New Era Long March.

As the exploration team’s geological hammer struck a titanomagnetite ore body in the Hongge South Mining Area of Panzhihua, the sunlight refracted by the core sample reminded me of the cold glint of bayonets reflecting off the snow-capped peaks of Dangling Mountain when the Red Army crossed the Hengduan Mountains—more than ninety years ago, our revolutionary forebears measured mountains and rivers with their own flesh and blood. Today, we natural resource professionals are using satellite remote sensing and UAV aeromagnetic surveys to search for treasures for our country. The red soil clinging to the hammerhead is our “Long March Medal.”

In the "New Round of Strategic Action for Mineral Exploration Breakthroughs," we bear a significant mission: to fully build a strategic safeguard base for the nation’s supply of critical primary products, firmly establish a strategic underpinning for national resource security, and provide solid support for constructing the nation’s strategic hinterland. At the same time, we will leverage high-quality development of mineral resources to propel the province’s economic transformation and upgrading, thereby contributing a key force to achieving high-quality development goals in the new era. Facing the challenges to national resource security, the Party Committee of the Group has issued a solemn commitment: we must secure strategic resources such as the Jiamika lithium deposit and the Hongge South vanadium-titanium magnetite deposit. During exploration, the ore bodies were severely fragmented by faults. The “Party Member Commando Team,” equipped with portable analyzers, carried out high-precision sampling on steep cliffs. After days and nights of relentless effort, we not only extracted high-grade ore cores from underground but also innovated a new mineral exploration model, offering a “Natural Resources Solution” that has made a significant contribution to Sichuan’s breakthrough in mineral exploration! The cheers echoing through the walkie-talkies represent the “victorious rendezvous” of a new era.

Immediately after the Luding earthquake, the group promptly collaborated with the Natural Resources Department to conduct a survey for geological hazards and leveraged specialized equipment to support hazard monitoring. During the survey in Luding County, the technical team detected continuous expansion of surface cracks through radar monitoring. Despite the challenging working conditions marked by frequent aftershocks, they still managed to install the monitoring devices in compliance with established standards. As our early-warning system helped local residents successfully avoid danger, we came to deeply realize that the spirit of the Long March is far from fading—it lives on in the alarm sounds of the geological hazard monitors and in the warmth of the hot tea offered to us by the local people.

Each exploration report is a “march roadmap” for the new era—in the “New Round of Strategic Action for Mineral Exploration Breakthroughs,” we have built three national- and provincial-level green mines and significantly increased our reserves!

Each afforested sapling is a “red spark” of ecological civilization—cumulatively restoring mined and damaged lands, ensuring that the philosophy of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” takes root and flourishes across the Bashu region!

Each geological disaster warning is a “hard-hitting commitment” to safeguarding lives—by establishing a three-dimensional monitoring network, we’ve significantly improved the accuracy of early warnings, thus protecting the lifeline of Sichuan’s people!

The core samples we extracted from diamond drill bits hold geological secrets spanning billions of years—and etched within them is the oath of those dedicated to Natural Resources. Back then, the Red Army forged China’s path with straw sandals; today, we safeguard our green mountains and clear waters through integrated “air-space-ground” exploration. As Sichuan’s lithium resources fuel the rise of new-energy vehicles, and as restored mines once again burst with vitality—this is our most passionate response to the spirit of the Long March!

The upcoming Group Party Congress has sounded the charge, and the “New Round of Strategic Action for Mineral Exploration Breakthroughs” has entered a critical phase. Let us take the geological hammer as our pen and the vast land of China as our paper, writing on this magnificent landscape a new-era answer from Sichuan’s Natural Resources professionals: The rust on our exploration hammers will be polished away by our original aspirations, and our steps along the Long March will always move forward! Just watch us—on Sichuan’s geological canvas, we’ll continue to write a splendid chapter of resource security for the new era!

Executive Producer | Yu Changheng

Reviewed by | Zou Zhongping

Editor-in-charge | Zhou Huiying

Text | Zheng Yuchen

Editor | Wang Yuchen