Iron ore reserves with over 15 billion tons have been ascertained nationwide recently by the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR), according to reports from the Xinhua News.

About 10 billion tons of iron ore are scattered in China's major mining areas in Sichuan, Liaoning and Shandong provinces, and mining constructions are being planned, said Wang Min, vice minister of MLR.

In addition, some prospective areas have been developed in West China, ''these iron ore resources are easy to exploit and are of large sizes,'' added Wang.