Mineral Rights Granting System Reform Programme.

The Mineral Rights Granting System Reform Programme is a sectoral policy document issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) and approved by the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council. In September 2016 the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council issued the Overall Programme for the Reform of the Ecological Civilisation System, which clearly stated that the government will improve the existing mineral rights granting system and choose the granting methods that meet market economy demand. The Mineral Rights Granting System Reform Programme was formulated to implement the overall programme. It aims to promote the competitive granting of all types of mineral right in China, including in the oil and gas, coal and metallic sectors. The programme highlights four key aims of the reform: •promoting the competitive granting of mineral rights; •restricting the granting of mineral rights agreements; •reforming the management model regarding the granting bonus and mineral rights fees; and •delegating approval authority. The programme requires competent authorities at all levels to improve their mineral resource planning work and designate the blocks to be granted in a reasonable manner. The Programme requires the competent authorities to implement tender, auction and listing methods to grant mineral rights and imposes strict restrictions on the granting of mineral rights via agreements. It states that, in future, mineral resources allocated through agreements or other administrative methods will be largely reduced. It also requires the MLR to delegate its mineral rights approval powers to lower-level competent departments. After the reform, the MLR will have the authority to approve only the granting of: •exploration and mining rights for oil, gas, shale gas, radioactive minerals, tungsten and rare earth metals; •mining rights for coal mines whose resource reserves exceed 1 billion tons; and •mining rights for coal-bed methane, gold, iron, copper, aluminium, tin, antimony, molybdenum, phosphorus and potassium mines that have large-scale resource reserves.