Mining and Quarrying Industry in China

Mining and quarrying industry is a basic industry of national economy, whose development provides rich mineral raw materials to various sectors, playing a supportive role in the development of national economy.

By early 2007, the country had discovered 171 varieties of mineral resources, including 159 with identified reserves, of which 10 were energy minerals, 54 were metal minerals, 92 were non-metal minerals, and 3 were hydrosphere minerals. If calculated by sub-minerals, there had been 224 varieties of identified reserves in total. Besides uranium, thorium, underground water, mineral water and another variety of new surface (sub) mineral, compared with the previous year, among the remaining 219 varieties (sub-) minerals, 108 minerals had witnessed increase of identified reserves, 70 had witnessed decrease of identified reserves, 41 remained the same, accounting for 49%, 32% and 19% respectively.

The output as well as import and export trade of major minerals continued to grow. Outputs of raw coal, crude oil, natural gas, iron ore, crude steel, 10 varieties of nonferrous metals, phosphate rock, crude salt and cement were 2.536b tons, 187m tons, 69.31b cubic meters, 707m tons, 490m tons, 23.51m tons, 45.42m tons, 59.76m tons and 1.354b tons respectively, up by 6.6%, 1.6%, 18.3%, 20.2%, 15.8%, 22.6%, 16.6%, 10.6% and 9.2% respectively. The import and export trade of mineral products amounted to USD494.2b, increased by 28.7% as compared with that of last year, accounting for 22.7% of the total import and export trade volume of the country. Compared with the previous year, the import of mineral products in shortage of large bulks continued to increase, of which imports of crude oil, iron ore, manganese ore, chromite, copper ore and potash fertilizer were 163m tons, 384m tons, 6.64m tons, 6.09m tons, 4.53m tons and 9.6m tons respectively.

Mining right market was further regulated. By the end of 2007, the number of valid exploration permits had been 29,191(with 6683 newly issued), including 1153 of the oil and natural gas. Valid mining permits were 106,202 (with 10,055 newly issued), including 617 of the oil and natural gas. The system of compensated use of mineral resources was further developed. In 2007, 541 prospecting rights were listed for bidding and auction at the selling price of RMB1.798b; and 9965 mining rights were listed for bidding and auction at the selling price of RMB3.285b.

With respect to the use of foreign investment in 2007, the number of contracted uses of foreign investment in mining sector was 234, increased by 12.5% over the previous year, accounting for 0.6% of the total number of projects; the actual use of foreign investment was USD 490m , increased by 5.4% year-on-year, accounting for 0.07% of the total actual use of foreign investment.

In accordance with the local conditions of mineral resources and needs of economic development, China 's mining investment is gradually moving to the rich mineral resources in the central and western regions. The government states that when stably developing mineral resources in eastern and central region, we should take initiatives to promote the development of mineral resources with advantages, continue to strengthen the survey, evaluation exploration and utilization of the 10 concentrated areas of mineral resources, hence promoting the construction of replacement areas and economic zones of mineral resources. In compliance with the requirements for adapting to local conditions, mining by scale and intensive use, we should scientifically define the planning areas of various mineral resources, improve the management system of regional plan, properly coordinate the relationship between the layout of the exploration, exploitation and utilization of resources and various interest groups, reasonably divide project areas, and set up mining rights scientifically, hence promoting rational layout and optimized allocation of resources development. With respect to the mining areas under national plan and of important value to the national economy, we should strictly follow the plan to develop them in order. The Ministry of Land and Re sources has pointed out that surveying and exploration should be strengthened on 16 key ores, 11 major oil and gas basins, 13 large coal bases and 16 major metal belt during the 11th Five-Year Plan , most of which are concentrated in the Midwest.

 

From:

http://www.fdi.gov.cn