China's mining sector saw revenues increase 12.4-fold year-on-year in 2016, due to improved technology in prospecting and mining, said China's land resources minister Saturday.

China spent more than 77 billion yuan (11.7 billion U.S. dollars) in geographic prospecting in 2016 to verify new reserves of 36 varieties of mine resources, two new oil fields, two major natural gas fields and 764.3 billion cubic meters of shale gas reserves.

Minister Jiang Daming made the remarks at the 2017 China International Mining Congress held Saturday in northern China's Tianjin Municipality.

He said the mining sector had recovered from the doldrums, with the 2016output of non-renewable energy reaching 3.46 billion tonnes of coal equivalent, 1.28 billion tonnes of iron ore and 52.83 million tonnes of 10 types of non-ferrous metal.

Jiang said China had also made a number of scientific breakthroughs in surveying technology such as deep-sea drilling at a depth over 10,000 meters and manned deep-sea submersibles.

The central government approved a 30 billion yuan budget and helped channel 60 billion yuan of local government spending and social funding to carry out environmental treatment in mining areas in 2016.

Experts suggested to innovate more customized tourism products, and ensure tourism keep pace with modern lifestyles, so as to push ahead with the sector’s transformation, maintaining it on a healthy and sustainable track.