More than 6,000 government officials, mining industry professionals, experts and scholars from 55 countries and regions participated in the 2012 (14th) China Mining Conference and Exhibition. Among them, more than 1,500 foreign representatives, including 22 mining ministers from 19 countries or regions, vice ministers and the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization director-general, as well as the ambassadors of 24 countries in China; more than 4,500 domestic representatives from 31 provinces and municipalities of the country and the Armed Forces Gold Brigade to participate in the exhibition. Li Keqiang, then member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council, sent a congratulatory letter to China Mining and pointed out that China would adhere to the principle of basing itself on the domestic market, accelerating the pace of mineral search and conserving and intensively utilizing the resources, improving the comprehensive capacity of safeguarding the domestic mineral resources, and actively participating in the international cooperation, so as to act as a facilitator of the construction of international mining market.