| |
China relies mainly on the development of
its own mineral resources and other natural resources to develop its economy.
In the course of building a well-off society in an all-round way, China
will first of all increase its domestic capability of mineral resources
supply. China still has big potentials for mineral resources prospecting
and exploitation. It has discovered more than 200,000 mineral deposits
and mineralized formations throughout the country. So far, only some 20,000
of them have been explored and assessed. Since the 1980s, 72,000 mineralization
abnormalities have been discovered, 25,000 of which have been checked,
resulting in the discovery of 217 mineral deposits. The unchecked ones
hold good prospects for mineral findings. The geological work is still
at a low level in the vast western regions and the outlying zones in the
eastern regions and the maritime areas under Chinese jurisdiction, and
there are many unknown areas. All these show the directions for the work
of prospecting for and exploiting domestic mineral resources in China
in the future.
The Chinese government, in accordance with the requirement for the establishment
of the socialist market economic system, has deepened the reform of the
system for mineral resources exploration, and carried out the public and
basic geological surveys and evaluation and the strategic exploration
of mineral resources on the one hand and the commercial exploration of
mineral resources on the other separately. In 1999, China set up the China
Geological Survey, which organized a new round of large-scale survey of
the land and resources, and initiated a basic exploration plan, a mineral
resources prospecting and evaluation project and a resources survey and
utilization technological development project, with the emphasis on the
basic geological survey and the evaluation of the prospects for mineral
resources in regions with a low level of geological work, especially the
exploration and evaluation of the mineral resources potentials in the
western regions and the exploration and evaluation of mineral resources
in short supply, so as to provide a scientific basis for the planning
work regarding mineral resources and administrative decisions by the government,
and to furnish basic geological information regarding mineral resources
for commercial prospecting. The strategic prospecting for mineral resources
with government investment has attracted investment into commercial prospecting,
and a number of areas with prospects of mineralization have become hot
spots for commercial investment.
The Chinese government encourages and gives active guidance to the commercial
prospecting that meets planning requirements, gears to market demands
and focuses on economic results. It encourages commercial prospecting
in central and western regions, remote and border regions and regions
inhabited by ethnic minorities, as well as other economically less-developed
regions with resources potentials. It encourages mining enterprises to
carry out commercial geological prospecting in the outlying areas or the
deeper formations of old mines with both market and resources potentials,
and to find new substitute resources. It encourages investors to acquire
exploration and mining rights, through fair competition, to sites of mineral
deposits founded after prospecting with government investment. It encourages
commercial prospecting for oil, natural gas, coal gas, coal with low ash
and low sulfur contents, and fine-quality manganese, chromium, copper,
aluminum, gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, metals of the platinum group,
and sylvite. It also encourages the development of geothermal, mineral
water and groundwater resources, in a scientific, economical and rational
way, while encouraging the use of good-quality water for better purposes,
and the prevention and control of pollution.
China will take the following measures to increase the domestic capability
of mineral resources supply:
— Strengthen the exploration and exploitation of energy mineral
resources. China has an abundance of coal resources, and there will be
no major changes in the position of coal as China’s main energy
source in the near future. However, the energy structure with coal as
its main source causes serious air pollution, and some adjustments must
be made to it. China will make full use of its coal and hydro power resources,
and develop cleaning technologies for coal, including coal washing, dressing,
liquefying and gasifying technologies. The scale of coal production in
the eastern regions will be stabilized, stress will be laid on the development
of the coal resources in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and the Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, the coal resources in southwest China will be exploited
in a rational way, and the coal resources in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia
and Qinghai will be exploited in an appropriate way. Greater efforts will
be made to exploit coal bed methane. China boasts fairly rich oil resources,
which, however, are insufficient to meet the demand. To solve the problem
of insufficient oil and gas supply, China will first exploit and utilize
its domestic oil and natural gas resources. Abundant petroleum resources
have been discovered in the western regions. The Tarim and Junggar basins
in Xinjiang, the Ordos Basin on the borders of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia,
Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, and the Qadam Basin in Qinghai all show great
potentials for development. Important discoveries have also been made
in the Bohai Sea area. In exploration and exploitation of oil resources,
emphasis will be placed on prospecting work in the old oilfields on the
basis of exploiting the deeper formations in the eastern regions, developing
the oilfields in the western regions and accelerating the exploration
of offshore oil and gas resources; at the same time, efforts will be exerted
to make new discoveries in the new formations and regions to increase
the verified oil reserves and maintain a rational rate of self-sufficiency
in oil. In exploration and exploitation of natural gas resources, emphasis
will be placed on the Tarim, Ordos and Qadam basins, and the Sichuan-Chongqing
region along the west-east gas pipeline, as well as the East China Sea
Basin, to increase the reserves, raise the output and gradually improve
China’s energy structure.
— Strive for a rational distribution of regional geological exploration
and exploitation of mineral resources. The comparative advantages of the
mineral resources in the western regions are conspicuous, and their distribution
is concentrated, thus providing the resources foundation for the formation
of dominant pillar industries. Of the country’s 158 minerals with
proved reserves, 138 are found in the western regions. The more than 30
minerals found in the western regions, including coal, oil and gas, sylvite,
chromite, rare earths, phosphorus, nickel, vanadium, manganese, copper,
aluminum and zinc, have comparative resources advantages in the country.
With the implementation of the western development strategy, the accelerated
construction of infrastructure facilities and ecological protection will
help to connect quickly the resources and the resource-related products
of the western regions with the domestic and international markets, thereby
greatly improving the conditions for the exploitation of mineral resources
and the entry of mineral commodities into the market. The Chinese government
encourages the commercial exploration of mineral resources, including
oil, natural gas, coal gas, high-grade coal, copper, gold, high-grade
manganese, sylvite and groundwater in the western regions, with emphasis
on the resource-rich areas, to promote the rational exploitation and deep
processing of oil, natural gas, non-ferrous metals, sylvite, phosphorus
and other mineral resources in the western regions and accelerate the
change from resources advantage to economic advantage. In the central
and eastern regions, emphasis will be placed on tapping the potentials
of the mineral resources, strengthening their multipurpose use and expanding
their processing industrial chain. Exploration of tungsten, tin, antimony,
lead, zinc and rare earth resources will be started in accordance with
the targets of the adjustment of the national industrial structure. Full
play will be given to the advantages of the central and eastern regions
in regional position and technologies in the exploitation of non-metallic
minerals, so as to raise the level of deep processing and the degree of
intensive utilization of non-metallic minerals, open new fields for their
application and increase the market competitiveness of the products. At
the same time, we will start the work of looking for substitute resources
in existing mines in the central and eastern regions. Maritime areas under
Chinese jurisdiction abound in mineral resources. The Chinese government
will continue to strengthen the prospecting and exploitation of oil and
gas resources in these areas and conduct research into other mineral resources,
and take an active part in the international activities of seabed mineral
resources research, prospecting and exploitation.
— Accelerate the structural adjustment of mineral resources exploitation
and utilization. The degree of intensiveness and modernization of mineral
resources exploitation in China is still somewhat low, and it is necessary
to optimize the structure, innovate technologies and improve management
in this regard. China will speed up the structural adjustment of mineral
resources exploitation and utilization, increase productive capacity and
raise efficiency. Through technological transformation of mining enterprises
and improvement of their management mechanism, the Chinese government
encourages the active introduction of clean production, and the application
of mature and high and new technologies in mineral resources prospecting
and exploitation, so as to raise the level of prospecting and exploitation.
We shall introduce scale exploitation, raise the level of intensiveness
and eliminate backward and scattered mining capacity. Mining enterprises
which operate without licenses, cause environmental pollution, waste resources
or do not have the proper conditions for safe operation shall be closed
down in accordance with the law. Through market and policy guidance, we
shall develop mining enterprise groups with international competitiveness.
We shall continue to support and assist non-state-owned mining enterprises
in their development.
— Raise the level of multipurpose utilization of mineral resources.
Of China’s proved mineral resources, there are fairly large quantities
of low-grade resources which are still difficult of utilization under
the present technological and economic conditions. The exploitation and
utilization of these resources is an important way to solve the shortage
of mineral resources supply. The Chinese government encourages the accelerated
conversion of resources with poor economic workability into resources
of economic workability by strengthening the construction of the necessary
infrastructure facilities in the resource-rich regions, improving the
external conditions for the construction of mines, using high and new
technologies, and reducing the cost of exploitation. To achieve multipurpose
utilization of the country’s resources is one of China’s important
technological and economic policies on mineral resources prospecting and
exploitation. China carries out comprehensive prospecting, overall evaluation,
comprehensive exploitation and multipurpose utilization of mineral resources.
It encourages and supports mining enterprises to exploit and utilize low-grade
refractory resources, and encourages and supports them to develop and
use substitute or secondary resources to increase the sources of resources
supply and reduce production costs. It encourages mining enterprises to
pool efforts to tackle difficult sci-tech problems and pursue technological
transformation for the multipurpose utilization of the “three wastes”
(waste slag, waste gas and waste liquid). It also encourages the recycling
of scrap metals and secondary resources, as well as the active exploitation
of non-traditional mineral resources. China issued the “Interim
Provisions Concerning Certain Questions on the Multipurpose Utilization
of Resources” in 1985, promulgated the “Opinions on Making
Further Multipurpose Utilization of Resources,” and published the
“Catalogue of Resources for Multipurpose Utilization” in 1996.
It has adopted preferential policies for the multipurpose utilization
of mineral resources in the fields of enterprise income tax and value-added
tax, and it encourages mining enterprises to raise the level of the multipurpose
resources utilization by reliance on scientific and technological progress
and innovations.
— Save energy and reduce consumption. China encourages the development
of technologies for deep-processing of mineral products, new energy sources
and new material technologies as well as technologies and technical processes
that save energy, materials and water, reduce consumption and raise the
efficiency of resources utilization. We shall develop renewable sources
of energy and nuclear power, increase the use of clean coal and CBM, and
reduce the proportion of coal directly burned. We shall develop new metals,
new non-metals and substitutes for conventional mineral materials and
reduce the dependence of an economic society on conventional mineral materials.
— Establish a system for the reserves of strategic mineral resources.
China will put the major strategic resources in the reserves order by
stages and in groups, on the basis of the present situation concerning
the supply and demand of mineral resources, as well as its national strength.
— Solve step by step the problem of substitute resources in old
mines. Some of the large and medium-sized state-owned mines in China have
entered their middle or late stages, and have insufficient substitute
resources. Some old mining enterprises can no longer continue their operations
because their resources are exhausted. The Chinese government will increase
its policy support for them by formulating rational financial and tax
policies in line with the characteristics of mineral resources prospecting
and exploitation, to create good external conditions for their survival
and development. We shall encourage large old mines to look for substitute
resources so as to prolong their service life.
|
|