Abstract:Lithium is a key international and domestic strategic shortage of mineral resources, the traditional brine- type lithium, hard rock- type lithium deposits cannot meet the growing demand of modern high- tech industry. The clay- type lithium deposit distribution area is wide, with huge resource potential has not been effectively developed, which is a major topic concerned by the industry(objectives). Through consulted literatures, collected information on government and enterprise official websites, combined with our own lithium exploration practicing(methods), it is found that there are five main problems affecting and restricting the exploration and development of clay- type lithium deposits: ① The resource potential of clayey lithium deposits is not fully understood, the prospect is not promising, and insufficient attention is not paid to it. ② The lack of normative basis to guide the exploration work. ③ The unfavorable factors of mineral resources management and mining rights management lead to insufficient exploration. ④ In the process of exploration and research, the technical performance of ore separation, metallurgy and processing is not paid enough attention, and the technological process is not mature, especially the economical and environmentally friendly separation and extraction technology and process are still in the exploration stage. ⑤ The basic research on the genetic mechanism and prospecting model of supernormal enrichment which can be used for exploration evaluation and prospecting prediction is still not thorough. In view of the above five problems, five aspects of thinking and suggestions are put forward in order to accelerate the pace of exploration and development of clayey lithium deposits, which is expected to alleviate the shortage of lithium resources and the tension between supply and demand. ① The geological prospecting industry should pay more attention to clayey lithium deposits and treat them as independent new mineral types. On the basis of making full use of the old exploration data such as coal and aluminum for secondary development, the verification survey is carried out on the abnormal areas, and the favorable ore- prospecting areas or ore- prospecting targets are delineated to provide the basis for the exploration and deployment of clayey lithium ore. ② Through the selection of representative blocks to carry out exploration and development test research and engineering demonstration, study and issue the clay lithium deposit exploration standards as soon as possible, to provide a standard for the future clay lithium ore exploration work. ③ Proceeding from the current mining right management system, in accordance with the two- cross principle of “public welfare first, fund linkage, commercial follow- up, complete exploration and rapid breakthrough”, on one hand, it is suggested that the national and local governments set up special geological prospecting funds, increase the financial input of geological prospecting funds, and form a batch of mineral production areas for further exploration. On the other hand, it is suggested that the mineral resources management departments release more exploration space. Introduce more social capital, fully mobilize the vitality of the exploration market, and provide a strong resource guarantee for the country. ④ It is suggested to increase the experimental investment of separation and extraction under different lithium occurrence states and different proportions, so as to form a technically reliable, economically reasonable and environmentally friendly technological process as soon as possible. ⑤ The fifth is to sort out and focus on the relevant scientific and technological issues that restrict the exploration evaluation, development and utilization and prospecting prediction, and to provide strong scientific and technological support for the exploration and development of lithium ore through scientific and technological breakthroughs(results). The above major bottleneck problems need the concerted efforts of the government, enterprises and scientific research universities to put forward solutions and measures in order to achieve an important breakthrough in the exploration strategy of lithium resources, form a batch of clay lithium deposit resource bases for industrial scale development, and then fundamentally solve the shortage of lithium resources and the situation of high dependence on imports.