Abstract: Based on 2016 annual statistics of national prospect rights of mineral resources and their investment, the situation of mineral exploration and their investment were analyzed in this paper. 2 620 prospect rights existed in China mainland in 2016, 10.2 percent of total nonoil and gas mineral prospect rights in China. Investments of nonmetallic mineral exploration are 1 522 million RMB Yuan, 1.96 percent of total investments of non oil and gas mineral prospect rights in China. Biggest proportion of prospect rights distributed in west China, and small proportion of that in east China. Only 1.31 percent of prospect rights distributed in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, but two-fifth prospect rights distributed in Yangtzi River Economic Zone. According to the state statistics, compared to non-oil-and-gas mineral exploration investment, exploration input of nonmetallic minerals by Central government is half of non oil and gas minerals, and exploration input of nonmetallic minerals by enterprise sector is only two third of non oil and gas minerals which means there is not enough input to exploration for nonmetallic minerals. During "the Twelfth Five-year" Plan Period and late, the exploration budgets of chemical material minerals ware decreased meanwhile that of building material minerals were increased. As faced with new opportunities and challenges along with ecological civilization construction, technological innovation of industry the exploration industry of nonmetallic minerals should increase more investment, adjust the layout of non-metallic mineral exploration and development, and take green exploration.