Since the beginning of this year, China's non-ferrous metal industry has shown strong development resilience in complex environments. In the first three quarters, the high-end, intelligent, and green processes of the non-ferrous metal industry continued to advance, and enterprise efficiency steadily improved. The industry's development continued to improve, showing a steady and progressive trend. Chen Xuesen, Vice President of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, stated that with the global green transformation and the development of artificial intelligence, as well as the vigorous development of new quality productivity represented by domestic strategic emerging industries and future industries, the development prospects and space of the non-ferrous metals industry are increasingly broad, and opportunities far outweigh challenges. Production investment maintains rapid growth, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. In the first three quarters, non-ferrous metal production remained stable with some progress. Among them, the growth rate of added value of non-ferrous industries above designated size increased by 7.8% year-on-year, which is 1.6 percentage points higher than the national growth rate of added value of non-ferrous industries above designated size. The output of 10 commonly used non-ferrous metals was 61.249 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.0%. The fixed assets investment in mines and fixed assets investment in smelting and rolling processing industries maintained a substantial growth. The non-ferrous metal industry completed a 10.1% year-on-year increase in fixed assets investment, 3.7 percentage points higher than the national industrial investment growth. The vitality of private investment was fully released, and non-ferrous metal private investment in fixed assets investment increased by 7.9% year on year. Lin Ruhai, Director of the Policy Research Office and Planning Research Office of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, believes that the steady growth of production and investment in the first three quarters is inseparable from the continuous strengthening of policies, accelerated industry transformation, and coordinated efforts from the macro environment. Recently, policies such as promoting high-quality development of the copper, aluminum, and gold industries have been implemented intensively, laying a clear path for industry development and providing solid policy support. The industry has abundant momentum for transformation, with accelerated progress in high-end, green, and intelligent transformation. Production efficiency and product added value are synchronously improved, coupled with the rapid demand for new materials from the "new three types" of foreign trade and strategic emerging industries, forming an endogenous growth momentum. At the same time, the domestic policy of stabilizing growth continues to be effective, and the prosperity of the manufacturing industry is gradually recovering, creating a better market environment and demand space for the non-ferrous metal industry. Starting from the national deployment of a new round of breakthrough strategic actions for mineral exploration, China has achieved significant results in increasing reserves and production of non-ferrous metal mineral resources, making breakthrough progress in exploration and development, and providing strong support for ensuring national resource security. From the perspective of specific varieties, China has made significant progress in the exploration of copper, aluminum, lithium, gold, strontium and other mineral resources, with a significant increase in resource reserves. At the same time, the amount of advantageous mineral resources such as rare earths, tungsten, molybdenum, and antimony has also achieved significant growth, further consolidating China's resource advantages. ”Duan Shaofu, Director of the Heavy Metal Department and Mineral Resources Office of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, stated that the significant breakthroughs in mineral exploration not only enhance the guarantee ability of China's non-ferrous metal resources and alleviate the pressure of high external dependence on some key minerals, but also create favorable conditions for the coordinated development of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. Exploring the digital transformation of non-ferrous metals is one of the key industries for intelligent transformation and digital transformation in China's industrial sector. According to statistics, the nonferrous metal industry currently has 38 national intelligent manufacturing demonstration factories, more than 60 Internet platform innovation pilot application cases, excellent intelligent manufacturing scenes, and 17 industrial Internet pilot demonstration projects; 12 non-ferrous enterprises have been selected as the first batch of national level excellent intelligent factories for 2025, 4 enterprises have been selected as the first batch of construction entities for manufacturing digital transformation promotion centers, and 37 factories have been selected as 5G factories, playing a leading demonstration role in the industry's digital transformation. In the field of smelting, the digital transformation of the industry has promoted the continuous improvement of process control accuracy and energy efficiency. The first artificial intelligence model in the non-ferrous metal industry, "Kun'an," jointly launched by China Aluminum Group and China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, provides strong support for the intelligent upgrading of the electrolytic aluminum field. In the field of processing, non-ferrous enterprises promote lean production and flexible manufacturing, by penetrating all production factors through data, optimizing resource allocation through algorithms, and solidifying lean rules in the system, to promote the transformation of the processing process from extensive scale production to refined value production. The digital transformation is an inevitable choice to promote the high-quality development of the non-ferrous metal industry, but this process requires continuous efforts. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments jointly issued the "Work Plan for Stable Growth of the Nonferrous Metals Industry (2025-2026)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Work Plan"), which points out the direction for promoting digital transformation in the non-ferrous metals industry. Chen Xuesen stated that the industry will play a central role in promoting the digital transformation of the non-ferrous metal industry in accordance with the requirements of the Work Plan, carry out industry digital transformation maturity diagnosis and evaluation, and technological transformation, and cultivate typical scenarios, benchmark factories, and benchmark enterprises for digital transformation. Promote the deployment and application of "5G+Industrial Internet", and build an industry featured industrial Internet platform. Carry out the "Artificial Intelligence+Nonferrous Metals" campaign, accelerate the construction of high-quality datasets in the industry, deploy a number of scenario models for exploration and resource assessment, precision sorting of mineral processing, optimization of electrolysis processes, product testing and quality control, and build a large-scale model for the non-ferrous metals industry. Currently, the non-ferrous metal industry is focusing on energy-saving, pollution reduction, and carbon reduction goals, actively carrying out technological upgrades, and promoting green and low-carbon development in the industry. It is reported that the entire industry has eliminated outdated electrolytic aluminum production capacity with high energy consumption, large emissions of "three wastes", and high production costs, and replaced it with a batch of advanced green and low-carbon technologies and equipment such as 600kA electrolytic cells and new stable flow insulation aluminum electrolysis technology, making energy consumption and pollutant emissions reach a leading level. More than 95% of copper lead zinc smelting in China has achieved advanced production processes. The "side blowing+top blowing" technology for copper smelting, large-scale electrolytic cells, and wet smelting process technology for laterite nickel ore have all achieved "going global", leading the technological progress of the global industry. Electrolytic aluminum is an important component of the aluminum industry, and promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction in electrolytic aluminum has attracted much attention. According to the "Special Action Plan for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in the Electrolytic Aluminum Industry" jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and five other departments, by 2025, the proportion of production capacity above the benchmark level of electrolytic aluminum energy efficiency will reach 30%, and production capacity below the benchmark level will complete technological transformation or be eliminated. In the first three quarters, by actively promoting large-scale energy-saving and carbon reduction renovations and energy equipment updates in electrolytic aluminum enterprises, the proportion of production capacity above the benchmark level of electrolytic aluminum energy efficiency reached 30%, meeting the target requirements ahead of schedule. According to calculations, the overall emission standards for recycled non-ferrous metals in China have reached the global average level, with some emission standards lower than the global average level. The contribution to carbon reduction is outstanding. Replacing 1 ton of electrolytic aluminum with 1 ton of recycled aluminum can reduce 10.6 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Chen Xuesen stated that in promoting the green development of the industry, the non-ferrous metal industry will further deepen the construction of carbon footprint management system, carry out energy-saving and carbon reduction technology transformation and green low-carbon technology research and development, and promote the high-quality development of the non-ferrous metal industry. (New Society)