The specific minerals of protective mining are superior strategic mineral resources related to national economic construction and high-tech development. The protection, development and utilization of these minerals are directly related to national economic security and the right to speak in the international market.
Special rectification of protective mining for specific minerals is not only the key content of rectifying and standardizing mining order, but also the key to effectively protecting national interests and transforming resource advantages into economic advantages. Entrusted by the Department of Mineral Development and Management, the Consulting and Research Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources completed the Research on the Management of Specific Mineral Species in Protective Mining, made theoretical analysis on related issues and put forward policy suggestions. To this end, the editor invited Zhang, the project leader and deputy director of the consulting center of the Ministry of Land and Resources, to give a main point to guide the practical work.
At present, the market price of mineral products is running at a high level, and mining enterprises, smelting and processing enterprises and local governments are driven by huge profits. The impulse to blindly expand the scale of mining and primary smelting and processing is great, and the state's regulatory measures for protective mining of specific minerals are facing challenges.
First, the phased achievements are remarkable, but the challenges are still severe: the advantages of resources are rapidly decreasing, and the industrial and product structure needs to be optimized and upgraded.
Since 199 1 the State Council issued the Notice on Listing Tungsten-Tin-Antimony Ionic Rare Earth Minerals as Specific Mineral Species for National Protective Exploitation, relevant departments and localities have conscientiously implemented it and carried out unified management of these superior mineral resources in a planned way. After more than ten years of unremitting efforts, they have achieved positive results in protecting resources, standardizing mining order and safeguarding national interests. Practice has proved that the state can effectively protect the interests of state-owned enterprises and turn resource advantages into economic advantages by implementing protective mining of specific mineral resources and strictly controlling the total amount. But at present, it is only a phased effect, and there are still many problems that cannot be ignored.
Because some localities and enterprises unilaterally pursue local interests, and some management work is not in place, the development and management of specific minerals are chaotic, products are surplus, and the output exceeds the planned index is very serious, which makes China's superior resource reserves consume too fast and its dominant position decline. It is mainly manifested in: indiscriminate mining and excavation occur from time to time, the order of production and operation is chaotic, the relationship between supply and demand is difficult to grasp, and the resource advantage is rapidly decreasing. Unreasonable industrial structure, overcapacity, mining capacity greatly exceeding the total control target set by the state, overheated investment in smelting and processing, low-level redundant construction, and great resistance to the implementation of total control policy. The added value of products is low, some high value-added products still need to be imported, the output of intermediate raw materials and middle and low-grade products has increased significantly far beyond domestic demand, primary products rely heavily on exports, while some high value-added products still need to be imported, and the product structure needs to be upgraded urgently. The false prosperity of export and export income will induce indiscriminate mining and excavation to flood again, and resource reserves will be over-consumed. If the problem of blind production and export is not fundamentally solved, the existing regulatory effect will be short-lived, and the state and enterprises will pay a heavy price again.
Second, the development order of specific minerals is chaotic. The main reasons are the lag of laws and regulations, inadequate supervision, relatively backward technology and low utilization level.
The management regulations and related policies for protective mining of specific minerals are lagging behind, and unified management has not yet been put in place. The main body of law enforcement is unclear, and many policies and indicators are contradictory; The basis of law enforcement is unclear, the measures and means of law enforcement are not in place, and there are still management blind spots. With the rising price of specific minerals in protective mining, profit-driven mining has become the driving force for miners to violate laws and regulations. A few local governments and departments also support and condone illegal mining activities from their own interests, which makes it more difficult to enforce the law on mineral resources management.
Although some specific minerals in protective mining have total mining control indicators, supervision is still not in place. Driven by real interests, some local government decrees are not smooth, and "there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom". There are different policies to implement the total control measures of specific minerals mining, and the situation of over-quota production and sales in different places is also different. Mineral products can be circulated at will, and measures are difficult to implement. There is a lack of effective mandatory management means, operable legal basis and specific punishment measures for over-quota production. At present, there is no joint supervision mechanism, so it is impossible to effectively supervise mining, smelting and export.
Protective mining of specific minerals is relatively backward, and the utilization level of mineral products is relatively low. Due to the lack of effective management, low industrial access threshold, excessive expansion of primary products and too few deep-processed products, vicious competition has a great negative impact on the local ecological environment. Some enterprises adopt primitive and backward mining and processing methods, and the overall production technology level is low and the benefits are poor. Mining the rich and abandoning the poor is a serious phenomenon, and a lot of resources are wasted.
The mining administration system is not smooth, and the legitimacy of grassroots law enforcement subjects is not enough. At present, some mine management departments in provinces (autonomous regions) and cities (prefectures) still belong to public institutions, most of which are self-supporting or have no staff, and some of them are of low quality. This situation restricts the law enforcement authority of grass-roots mining administrative departments to a certain extent, which directly leads to difficulties in daily supervision of mining enterprises.
Third, specific protection measures and policy suggestions: speed up the formulation of special management regulations and establish a mineral resources reserve system.
In order to comprehensively standardize the order of exploration, mining, smelting, processing, transportation, management and trade at home and abroad, promote the intensive management of mining industry, promote the sound and rapid development of protective mining of specific minerals, make the protective mining of specific minerals "protected, mined, managed and supervised", safeguard the overall economic interests of the country, and accelerate the formulation of "Administrative Measures for Protective Mining of Specific Minerals".
-In addition to taking protective measures for general minerals, it is suggested to take special compulsory protective measures for specific minerals under protective mining. Strict industry access management, strict control of the total mining, strict control of the total export products, strict protection of associated resources, if necessary, limit the upgrading of exploration stage and issue mining licenses. In addition, in order to strengthen the supervision of indicators, it is suggested to implement national unified ticket management in the whole process of development, smelting, processing and export trade.
-Supervision of specific minerals for protective mining must play a leading role in mineral resources planning. It is suggested that special planning should be made for specific minerals at the same time as the national mineral resources planning. Establish a protective mining functional zone for specific minerals, and realize programmed comprehensive management of the whole industrial chain of specific minerals through planning. In order to highlight the strategic, policy and operability of special planning, it is necessary to make timely analysis and accurate judgment on the situation of mineral resources, including the changes of supply and demand situation at home and abroad, the real situation of mining right holders' consumption and reserve of mineral resources, the latest progress of exploration achievements and prospecting potential of prospecting right holders, etc. Because the original statistical channels are not smooth, the dynamic monitoring of mineral resources reserves has become a very important basic work in recent years and must be done well.
-adjusting the industrial structure, vigorously developing deep processing, promoting product upgrading and increasing the added value of products. First of all, we should encourage and support enterprises and research institutes to overcome scientific and technological difficulties, improve their independent innovation ability, and establish and improve a technological innovation system with enterprises as the main body. At the same time, enterprises are encouraged to extend the industrial chain, take the road of large-scale and intensive development, and tilt the mining quota to the mines that invest in deep processing. Secondly, the state should actively support specific mining cities rich in minerals to persist in developing extended products and deep-processed products and improve the added value of products. In addition, in the policy of attracting investment, the country of origin of specific minerals is supported to strictly control the total production, and at the same time, advanced foreign technologies and processes are introduced by taking advantage of mineral resources to realize the local transformation of raw materials of specific minerals, form application industrial clusters of specific minerals, and enhance the scientific and technological content of products.
-Establishing a mineral resources reserve system, combining mineral reserves with primary mineral reserves, and implementing the policy of "enterprise reserves as the mainstay and national reserves as the guarantee".
Although the reserve object can be mineral products, semi-finished products, primary products, or mineral land, in a sense, the reserve of mineral land may be more economical and safer. Of course, the mineral land reserve system should conform to the phased law of mineral geological exploration: pre-exploration and general survey cannot be limited, and the stage of completing detailed investigation is the best reserve stage, but it cannot be the same, because the cycle of mine exploration and construction is often longer than the cycle of market changes. National planning needs to form stepped reserves, some need to complete the exploration stage, and some need to build mines (not mining), which is urgently needed.
At the same time, the reserve of mineral land shall not undermine the administrative licensing rules, and shall not infringe upon the interests of the prospecting and mining rights holders. In principle, it is the national reserve, which encourages enterprises to reserve. If the state decides to reserve for the overall benefit, so as to suspend exploration and development at a certain stage, the state should implement state acquisition of the suspended mining rights at a fair evaluation price. It is suggested that the state set up a special reserve institution to repurchase exploration and mining rights. This institution must have strong financial support, mainly implement the national resource policy, and can implement enterprise management of public institutions. In addition to national reserves, enterprises should also be allowed to reserve, and priority should be given to enterprise reserves. The enterprises participating in the reserve can be the original exploration right holder, mining right holder or other enterprises.
The reserve principles and methods of mineral products, semi-finished products and primary products are consistent with the mineral reserves. When there is no export quota for normal production, it will be purchased by the State Reserve Bureau at the protective price, and the policy of "giving priority to enterprise reserves and guaranteeing the national reserves" will be implemented at the same time. Because enterprises have different judgments on futures profits of mineral products, semi-finished products and primary products, enterprises can conduct spot or futures transactions, form a circulation market for protective mining of specific minerals in which state-owned enterprises and private enterprises participate, and have particularly strict management on promissory notes of origin to prevent the inflow of illegally mined products. At the same time, this market is under the constant intervention of the government's resource control policy. The principle of government policy regulation is to safeguard the fundamental interests of the country and consider the rights and interests of enterprises; The main means of regulation and control is to formulate the total exploitation index, the total export index and the purchase price of the reserve object; The main regulatory responsibility is to crack down on illegal mining and the circulation of its products.
-adjusting the pattern of interest distribution by economic means. Try to realize industrial policy orientation with economic interest incentive mechanism and ease the conflict between planned management and market economic system. Increase the export tax burden of mining and primary product processing, reduce the expectation of profiteering, and reduce the distribution of control indicators and regulatory pressure. Since 2006, the state has taken measures such as reducing the export of tungsten, rare earth, antimony and other minerals, refunding taxes and even collecting export taxes, and raising taxes and fees on mineral resources, and achieved good results. It can be seen that this is an effective protective measure for protective mining of specific minerals. In addition, when major changes in national policies infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, appropriate compensation should be given.
-further clarify that the Ministry of Land and Resources is the main body of management and law enforcement, establish an inter-ministerial joint meeting system, and implement comprehensive and coordinated management. We should report to the State Council, and make up our minds to solve the problem of multiple ministries issuing indicators, multiple policies and overlapping functions. In the case of lag or absence of laws and regulations, administrative regulations can be temporarily formulated for emergency management. Some mining management measures that have been brewed and need to be tested in practice can be tried out in the protective mining of specific minerals, such as the unified management system of authorization, the qualification certificate system, the quasi-transportation certificate system, and the franchise ticket system.
-The specific minerals of protective mining are dynamic, and their management must keep pace with the times. On the one hand, compared with other specific minerals of protective mining, gold is not an export dominant mineral in China, and it can't meet the domestic demand. It belongs to hard currency and is a special material monopolized by the state without restriction. The state has also formulated policies to encourage gold mining. With the gradual opening of the gold market in China, gold management has deviated from the track of applicable laws for protective mining of specific minerals. It is suggested to consider revoking the decision to list gold as a specific mineral for protective mining. On the other hand, are there still some advantageous mineral resources, which are over-exploited, repeatedly constructed, blindly exported and competitively priced, so that the resource advantages cannot be exerted and the national interests are damaged? Should it also be classified as protective mining of specific minerals? China's coal, rare earth, tungsten, tin, molybdenum, antimony, titanium, gypsum, bentonite, mirabilite, magnesite, barite, fluorite, talc and graphite have obvious advantages in the world. In geology and mineral industry and even all walks of life, there is a high voice to list bismuth, molybdenum, indium and scarce coal as specific minerals for protective mining. It can be seen that the establishment and revocation of protective mining of specific minerals should be adjusted according to the development and changes of mineral resources situation.
(Originally published in China Land and Resources Daily on August 29th, 2008, the author is the project leader, and the members of the research group are Hu Kui, Wen Zhengyi and Zhang Xing).