China's mining market will be further opened

China International Mining Conference opens in Tianjin on October 9, 2019. Reporters learned from the meeting that China will further promote the opening of the mining market. At the meeting, Ling Yueming, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that at present, China has begun to revise and draft the mineral resources law, which will comprehensively promote open competition in the transfer of mining rights, strictly restrict the transfer of agreements, more fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of mining rights holders, and treat all kinds of market entities at home and abroad more equally.

Ling Yueming said that the Ministry of Natural Resources will introduce a number of major reform measures to optimize the administrative examination and approval system and process of mineral resources, open the oil and gas exploration and exploitation market in an orderly manner, adjust the examination and approval authority of central and local mining rights, constantly improve the incentive mechanism for enterprises to carry out mineral resources exploration and development in accordance with regulations, integrate the evaluation and filing of mineral resources reserves, and establish mines. Regular investigation and evaluation system of production resources and reserves should be established to strengthen the marine security of mining land and encourage the enthusiasm of mining enterprises and social funds to invest in risk exploration.

The General Assembly also issued the China Mineral Resources Report 2019 compiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources. The report shows that by the end of 2018, 173 mineral resources have been discovered in China, and the proven reserves have increased from more than a dozen at the beginning of the founding of New China to 162, making China one of the few major countries in the world with complete mineral resources and abundant total mineral resources.

In 2018, 37 identified mineral resources in China increased and 11 decreased. Among them, the reserves of identified coal resources increased by 2.5%, the recoverable reserves of remaining oil technology increased by 0.9%, and natural gas increased by 4.9%. The reserves of major mineral resources continued to grow steadily.

The report shows that in 2018, new proved reserves of 959 million tons, 83.157 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 124.678 billion cubic meters of shale gas were added to petroleum exploration. A total of three oil fields with geological quantities exceeding 100 million tons and one gas field exceeding 300 billion cubic meters have been explored throughout the country. In gas hydrate exploration, China has started the construction of pilot experimental areas for gas hydrate exploration and production in the preferred key sea areas in the northern South China Sea, and has drilled gas hydrate deposits with large thickness, high purity, multiple types and multi-layered distribution for the first time. The proven reserves of important non-oil and gas minerals such as coal and copper deposits also kept increasing. In 2018, 153 new mineral deposits were discovered in China. The report also shows that China's non-oil and gas mineral resources have great potential. By the end of 2018, 28 kinds of solid mineral resources have been predicted, with an average detection rate of 26.0% at a depth of 2,000 meters.