In order to implement the requirements of the reform of the ecological civilization system, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the “Reform Plan for the Transfer System of Mining Rights”, which calls for promoting the competitive transfer of mining rights in an all-round way by means of bidding, auction and listing, strictly restricting the transfer of mining rights by agreement, decentralizing the authority for examination and approval, and strengthening supervision services. It will take about three years to establish a mining right transfer system that is more comprehensive in competition, more perfect in paid use, more reasonable in division of powers and more comprehensive regulatory services.

The Plan clearly defines the main ideas of reform, namely, based on mineral resources planning, taking market-oriented transfer as the main line, focusing on innovative transfer methods, highlighting problem orientation, adhering to pilot projects, to promote competitive transfer of mining rights in an all-round way, strictly restrict the act of agreement transfer, adjust the authority of examination and approval of mining rights, and strengthening transfer supervisory services, ensuring the principle of “proper power release, proper acceptance, proper management” , and to establish a system of transferring mining rights in line with the requirements of market economy and mining rules. It is required to adhere to the market competition orientation, follow the rule of mining development, better play the role of the government to ensure national security of mineral resources, safeguard the rights and interests of state owners, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of mining rights holders.

In terms of improving the mining rights competition and transfer system, the “Program” emphasizes that the basic work of mining rights transfer should be done well, and special provisions should be made for overlapping settings in special situations such as oil and gas and non-oil and gas minerals. Except for special circumstances, the mining rights will be transferred by bidding, auction and listing, and the market will judge the exploitation risk and determine the mining rights transfer income. Reform mining rights transfer management, and transfer income can be paid in installments on an annual basis. For exploration right, the initial payment amount is not less than a certain percentage when the exploration permit is obtained, and the rest is paid annually according to the mining right. Innovate the economic adjustment mechanism of mining rights, comprehensively adjust the collection standard of exploration rights, establish a progressive dynamic adjustment mechanism, effectively curb the phenomenon of “circle without exploration”; and timely adjust the mining right occupancy fees and the minimum exploration input standards according to the price changes of mineral products and the needs of economic development.

In terms of strictly restricting the transfer of mining rights agreements, the Plan requires that mining rights should not be transferred by agreement in general, and in special cases, it is constantly improved through pilot projects. The scope of the agreement is strictly controlled by the specific exploration and mining subjects determined by the State Council and the key construction projects approved, as well as the deep mining rights in large and medium-sized mines. The agreement transfer must carry out collective decision-making, price evaluation, publicity of results, establish the benchmark price system of agreement transfer, and improve the management of exploration rights financed by the state.

The Plan proposes to decentralize examination and approval authority and strengthen supervision services. The Ministry of Land and Resources is responsible for the examination and approval of exploration and mining rights for six kinds of minerals: petroleum, hydrocarbon natural gas, shale gas, radioactive minerals, tungsten and rare earth. It is also responsible for coal mines with reserves more than 1 billion tons and large resource reserve scale mining rights of 11 kinds of minerals, including coalbed methane, gold, iron, copper, aluminium, tin, antimony, molybdenum, phosphorus and potassium. For examination and approval of other mining rights originally approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources shall be put down to the provincial level. At the same time, strengthen the mineral resources planning to control the source of mining rights; strictly supervise the transfer transactions, and establish a nationwide network of information disclosure and inquiry system for the transfer of mining rights; strengthen the service of registration supervision, and implement traces management in an all-round way; reform the way of supervision of mining rights holders, fully implement of the mining rights exploration and mining information disclosure system.

The Plan calls for the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Finance and other departments to strengthen coordination and organize reform-related work in accordance with the division of responsibilities. Six provinces (regions) of Shanxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Guizhou and Xinjiang were selected to carry out pilot projects in an orderly manner. In 2017, pilot work will be started; in 2018, relevant normative documents will be published, revised and improved on the basis of continuing pilot work and summing up experience; and on the basis of summing up and evaluating pilot work, they will be popularized and implemented nationwide in 2019.

——Cited from Ministry of Land and Resources