Legal information

The Department of Natural Resources of Shanxi Province was informed that the "Special Rectification Work Plan for Market-based Transactions of Mineral Resources in Shanxi Province" has been issued. All localities will focus on proactively integrating into and serving the national unified market, focusing on the issue of administrative intervention in the market-based transactions of mineral resources, consolidating the main responsibilities and departmental responsibilities, breaking local protection and market segmentation, starting from three aspects of issues, further standardizing the order of mineral resource market transactions, ensuring safe and stable supply, and assisting the high-quality development of energy resources.

The first is the violation of relevant regulations on the transfer of mining rights. Mainly rectify whether the transferred block violates mineral resource planning, land spatial planning and use control requirements, etc. Whether the transfer method violates the requirements of comprehensively promoting the competitive transfer of mining rights and strictly controlling the transfer of mining rights by agreement? The mining rights that should be transferred by bidding, auction and listing are illegally transferred by agreement. The qualification of the subject not only depends on whether the transfer authority has exceeded its authority in the transfer, but also whether the transferee is compliant, including whether it is included in the national and provincial credit abnormal directory, whether there is any liability for breach of contract, and whether administrative penalties are not fulfilled within the time limit, etc. Whether the transfer proceeds strictly comply with national and provincial policies and regulations, whether there are any unreasonable issues such as failure to pay within the prescribed time limit, and whether sand and gravel blocks cannot be demarcated by ridge lines, etc.

The second is the problem of setting unreasonable conditions for the transfer of mining rights. Focus on rectifying violations of the relevant provisions of the "Notice on Cleaning Up Policies and Measures that Hinder Unified Markets and Fair Competition" issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation and other four departments, illegally setting unreasonable or discriminatory conditions for the transfer of mining rights, illegally increasing the pre-qualification review content for the transfer of mining rights, excluding or restricting non-local operators and non-state-owned enterprises, etc.

The third is the issue of intervening in the sales of mineral products by business entities. This includes the use of administrative means to intervene, restrict transactions, hinder the free circulation of mineral products between regions, hinder and restrict the entry of foreign mineral products into the region, implement a strict ban on the export of mineral products, or use administrative power to prevent the outflow of local mineral products, set up relevant licenses or stipulate additional fees for illegal sales of mineral products across regions, etc.

The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Department of Natural Resources said that they will further formulate and improve the transfer transaction rules, integrate the province’s mining rights trading system, promote the full coverage and electronicization of the three-level mining rights transfer platform at the provincial, municipal and county levels, and realize the transformation from key rectification to systemic governance, and from passive response to proactive action. (Li Quanhong Guo Feng Zhang Jian)