Recently, Xinjiang, Liaoning, Gansu, Sichuan, Shandong, Hubei, Jiangxi, and other regions have been actively promoting the transfer of mining rights projects, attracting various types of capital to participate in the exploration and development of mineral resources. Experts have indicated that with the launch of China's new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs, the market for mineral exploration and development has already heated up.

Statistical data released by the Ministry of Natural Resources show that from January to August this year, a total of 868 exploration rights were transferred nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 194.1%. Among them, there were 528 exploration rights for strategic mineral resources, a year-on-year increase of 254.4%.

Wu Haiyang, the Chief Planner of the Ministry of Natural Resources, recently stated that efforts will be increased to allocate exploration rights, encouraging enterprises to find more minerals, better minerals, and larger minerals. At the same time, the guiding role of fiscal fund investment will be leveraged to fully promote green exploration and development, and to drive the increase in reserves and production of important energy and mineral resources.

Concentrated promotion of mining rights transfer projects

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Xinjiang, known for its "three mountains sandwiching two basins" topography, has abundant mineral resources with the saying "every mountain has gold, copper, and iron, and every basin has coal, oil, and gas." Currently, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has discovered 153 types of minerals and identified the resource reserves of 103 types, accounting for 88% and 63% of the national total, respectively, with 77 types of identified resource reserves ranking in the top ten nationwide.

In late September, the 2024 Xinjiang Mining Rights Transfer Project Promotion Conference (North Xinjiang) was held in Yining City, Xinjiang, focusing on promoting 182 mining rights transfer projects involving 22 types of minerals such as oil and gas, coal, copper, gold, lithium, and potash, including 40 copper mines, 39 gold mines, and 34 oil and natural gas projects, most of which are advantageous minerals in Xinjiang. Nearly 400 domestic mining-related enterprises were invited to participate. This follows the June event in the Hotan area, which focused on the mining rights transfer of South Xinjiang's mineral resources, marking another concentrated promotion of mining projects in Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang Department of Natural Resources introduced that in 2024, Xinjiang's financial investment increased from 150 million yuan in 2023 to 500 million yuan, focusing on strategic minerals such as iron, copper, gold, and rare metals, and implementing 108 geological exploration projects. In recent years, Xinjiang has discovered a number of new mineral deposits, added a batch of resource quantities, and newly evaluated a batch of high-quality blocks. Since the beginning of this year, the number of transfers, transaction amounts, and revenues have reached historical highs.

Liaoning Province has already listed 7 mining rights for transfer this year, with a total transaction price of nearly 1 billion yuan. According to the Liaoning Department of Natural Resources, the department has established a special team for mining rights transfer, taking the new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs as a starting point, focusing on scarce strategic minerals such as iron, gold, boron, copper, and manganese, scientifically delineating exploration and mining areas based on national spatial planning and mineral resource planning, and expanding the sources of transfer blocks through multiple channels. By holding mining rights transfer project promotion meetings, the proposed mining rights are promoted in a concentrated manner, attracting various social capital investments in mineral resource exploration and development.

At present, the enthusiasm of various types of capital to participate in the exploration and development of mineral resources is increasing. Photography/Zhang Ke

Gansu has a vast territory and rich mineral resources, known as the hometown of non-ferrous metals nationwide. Currently, Gansu Province has discovered more than 190 types of minerals, with 12 types of mineral resources such as nickel and cobalt ranking first in the country. Among the 36 strategic mineral species determined by the state, Gansu Province has identified reserves of 29 species.At the Gansu Province Mining Rights Transfer Project Promotion Meeting held not long ago, the Gansu Provincial Department of Natural Resources presented 109 non-coal mining rights transfer projects. Since 2022, Gansu Province has vigorously promoted the normalization of mining rights transfer through open competition, with a cumulative transfer of 458 mining rights, generating a transfer income of 47.2 billion yuan. The transferred mining rights are expected to drive follow-up investment of more than 70 billion yuan and increase industrial output value by 200 billion yuan.

In September, the Shandong Provincial Department of Natural Resources held the second batch of exploration rights transfer promotion meeting in Jinan, focusing on promoting five exploration rights, including the gold mine survey in Daheya area of Qixia City and the iron mine survey in Dazhang area of Qihe County; at the mining rights transfer project promotion meeting held not long ago in Hubei Province, 17 exploration rights projects, including the gold mine in Shuangmiaoguan of Macheng City, were focused on promoting.

According to the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Natural Resources, from January to July this year, Jiangxi Province transferred 48 mining rights, ranking fourth in the country, with a year-on-year increase of 54.84%; the transaction amount was 2.574 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 58.30%, mainly for copper, gold, iron, fluorite, granite and other mineral resources.

Policy Support for Mineral Resource Reserves and Production Increase

According to the first financial reporter, this year, many places have also introduced corresponding policies to increase financial investment and support for geological mining, improve the rules for mining rights transfer transactions, and increase the intensity of mining rights transfer.

In September this year, the General Office of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region People's Government issued several measures to promote the high-quality development of the mining industry, including strengthening the green exploration and rapid exploration of exploration rights, increasing the support for geological mining, promoting the scientific and rational exploration and development of mineral resources, accelerating the exploration and development of coalbed methane resources, improving the rules for mining rights transfer transactions, standardizing the transfer of mining rights by state-owned enterprises and institutions, legally restoring policy-based exit mining rights, establishing a geological mining incentive and restraint mechanism, cultivating and expanding the advantage industry chain, and strengthening the support and leadership of scientific and technological innovation. The policy measures are very valuable.

The aforementioned measures propose to focus on the deployment of geological exploration projects in southern Xinjiang and areas with good mineralization conditions and large financial investment. Encourage local finances to invest in geological mining, driving social funds to work in the same direction and quickly increase reserves and production.

Zhang Jun, deputy director of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Department of Natural Resources, introduced that the Ministry of Natural Resources has made Xinjiang a key area in the new round of strategic actions for mining breakthroughs, deploying 120 key mining areas and demarcating 22 large resource bases, the most in the country. Xinjiang will "provide a batch of high-quality blocks every year to enrich the transfer project library."

Jiangxi Province issued the "Implementation Measures for the Collection and Management of Mining Rights Transfer Income in Jiangxi Province", optimizing the collection system of mining rights transfer income. For the 144 types of mineral resources clearly defined by the state, the transfer income of mining rights was originally collected according to the amount of resources assessed, and it was adjusted to be collected year by year according to the sales income of mining products, which greatly reduced the financial pressure on mineral development enterprises.

The new round of strategic actions for mining breakthroughs aims to promote the increase of reserves and production of important energy and mineral resources. Photography/Zhang KeRecently, the Fujian Provincial Department of Natural Resources issued the "Fujian Province Mineral Rights Transfer Revenue Market Benchmark Price," which clarifies the benchmark price per unit of recoverable reserves for 14 types of minerals and specifies that this benchmark price will be implemented for the collection of mineral rights transfer revenue based on the transfer amount. For the transfer revenue of mineral rights through agreement or the reserve price for the transfer of mineral rights through bidding, auction, or listing, the higher of the assessed value by professional assessment institutions or the mineral rights market benchmark price will be determined.

At the "Promoting High-Quality Development" series of thematic press conferences held by the State Council Information Office on September 19, Wu Haiyang, the Chief Planner of the Ministry of Natural Resources, introduced that in recent years, the Ministry of Natural Resources has focused on improving the security supply capacity of energy resources, vigorously promoting the exploration and development of mineral resources, and promoting the green transformation and development of the mining industry.

Wu Haiyang introduced that the Ministry of Natural Resources has focused on playing the guiding role of fiscal investment, driving social funds to participate in mineral exploration, and the proportion of social funds in exploration investment has been continuously increasing. At the same time, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, the collection method of mineral rights transfer revenue has been changed from a one-time determination when obtaining mineral rights to mainly collecting it annually during mine production based on sales revenue, which encourages enterprises to increase exploration investment.

He stated that in the next step, the Ministry of Natural Resources will further improve the overall and coordinated system of strategic mineral resource exploration, mining, supply, storage, and sales, continue to deeply promote the new round of strategic actions for breakthroughs in mineral exploration, and promote the increase in reserves and production of important energy and mineral resources.