Ye Dongsong, vice-minister of China's Land and Resources Ministry (LRM), said this at a symposium held on January 4-5 in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Two-thirds of China's provinces, regions and municipalities have made breakthrough in establishing the market of prospecting and mining rights since 1998, and the number keeps increasing, according to official figures, he said.

Zheng Shaojin, director of the Development Administration Department of the LRM, said Zhejiang was the first province to sell mining rights in 1998. Four years later, Jiangxi for the first time in China auctioned its mining rights in gold mines. In the same year, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region organized public bids and auctions for granite and coal mines.

"The western parts of China have rich mineral resources," said Zhang Wenju, a professor of China's Geological and Economic Society. "Selling mining rights can help improve the administration of prospecting and mining order and make for more efficient use of resources."

For years, the prospecting and mining rights in China is granted free of charge by concerned departments of the government. 　　

"Such a free-of-charge license system of prospecting and miningadministration caused inefficiency, waste of resources and varioussafety problems," said Chen Jingjie, deputy director of the Land and Resources Bureau of Heilongjiang Province. "It must be changed."

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2003)