mineral resources

Mining friends, please note that the Ministry of Natural Resources has just issued a major document - the "Notice on the Management of Mineral Resources Covered by Construction Projects", which was officially issued on July 7. This document directly replaces the 16-year-old Document No. 137 and has a major impact on mining companies and construction units.

I have sorted out the 6 most core changes for you, each of which is directly related to your mining assets.

Change 1: From "suppressing important minerals" to "suppressing strategic minerals"

The previous scope of approval was "important mineral resources", but now it has been changed to "strategic mineral resources". It sounds like the scope has been narrowed, but in fact the catalog of strategic minerals is clearer and the protection is stronger. New energy minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths have been included in key protections and must not be suppressed in principle.

**Meanings for mine owners**: If your mine involves strategic minerals and the project builder wants to overwhelm your mine, the threshold is higher than before, which is a good thing.

Change 2: Override query has a hard time limit - 5 working days

In the past, coverage queries were delayed for several months in many places without clear time constraints. The new regulations clearly require provincial natural resources authorities to provide query services through "one map" and must provide feedback within 5 working days.

**Meanings for mine owners**: The project builder can no longer use "no results from the inquiry" as an excuse to delay, and you also have a clear time point to safeguard your rights.

Change 3: The approval time limit is shortened from 20 working days to 10 working days

This is a major speedup. The time for override approval has been directly reduced from the original 20 working days to 10, and the evaluation report is no longer required to be reviewed and filed before being submitted for approval.

**Meanings for mine owners**: Faster approval means that the processing period after your mine is overturned will be shortened, and the pace of compensation negotiations will also be accelerated.

Change 4: The scope of compensation is finally clarified

The new regulations clarify that the scope of overturning compensation in principle includes: paid mining rights transfer income (price), exploration investment, investment in established mining facilities and other direct losses and interest, and relocation facility costs. And the overburden compensation fee should be included in the project construction cost.

**Meanings for mine owners**: In the past, the scope of compensation was vague, and construction units often lowered compensation on the grounds that "there was no legal basis." Now there are clear regulations, and every investment you make has a basis for claiming compensation.

Change 5: You can jointly entrust a third-party assessment

The new regulations encourage construction units and mining rights holders to jointly entrust third-party evaluation agencies to conduct overburden compensation evaluations. At the same time, the natural resources authorities at or above the provincial level must formulate compensation guidance standards and provide compensation practice case library query services.

**Meanings for mine owners**: Jointly entrusting evaluation means that you no longer passively accept the evaluation results unilaterally given by the other party, and have a basis for reciprocal negotiation.

Change 6: Simplified approval within urban development boundaries

If an assessment of the overburden area has been made within the urban development boundary, the inquiry and overburden management procedures will no longer be repeated.

**Meanings for mine owners**: If you have mining rights within the urban development boundary, the approval process will be much simpler, reducing the cost of repeated procedures.

Yingting lawyer reminds

This notice is another important policy this year in the field of mineral resources. For mining companies, the most critical thing is to figure out whether their mines involve strategic minerals, to make good use of the two time points of the 5 working day inquiry time limit and the 10 working day approval time limit, and to clarify the scope of compensation in accordance with the new regulations during compensation negotiations.

If your mine is facing a situation of being suppressed, it is recommended to entrust a professional lawyer to intervene as soon as possible after receiving the notice, grasp the time window for negotiation and approval, and ensure that the compensation rights are not compromised.

Beijing Yingtong Law Firm specializes in mining rights legal services and provides professional legal support to mining companies across the country such as mineral rights override compensation, mining rights disputes, and administrative litigation.