China Plans to Issue Laws to Promote Reasonable Exploitation and Utilization of Mineral Resources

In latter part of December, 2023, for the first time, Revised Draft of Mineral Resources Law (Revised Draft in short) was submitted to Meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation. The Revised Draft incorporates 76 articles in 8 chapters, covering all existing mineral resources laws, including intensifying policy support, improving mining right system, strengthening strategic mineral resource protection, improving related mining land mechanism, and highlighting intensifying domestic mineral resource prospecting and exploring and reserve increasing and production increasing. First of all, the Revised Draft emphasizes guaranteeing the safety of national mineral resources; makes efforts to provide support for domestic prospecting and exploring and reserve increasing and production increasing of important mineral resources, for the improvement of conservation and intensive utilization, and for the improvement of emergency supply capacity. Second of all, the Revised Draft clarifies establishing mineral resource reserve and emergency system; adds the chapter of “Mineral Resource Reserves and Emergency Response”; regulates national strategic mineral resource reserve system that combines product reserve, capacity reserve and origin reserve; clear regulations have been made in terms of organization and implementation of mineral product reserves, implementation of responsibility for capacity reserve, delineation of strategic mineral resource reserve areas, and the measures that can be taken in mineral resource emergency. In addition, the Revised Draft adds the chapter of “Ecological Restoration of Mining Areas”, which clarifies the responsibility entity of ecological restoration of mining areas; encourages social capital to participate in ecological restoration of mining areas; clarifies the necessity of qualified acceptance of ecological restoration; rules that mining-right owners should draw expense of ecological restoration of mining areas according to regulations.