Suspend Rare Earth Mine Tungsten Mine Prospecting Right Mining Right

December 14 was learned from the Ministry of Land and Resources that the Ministry of Land and Resources recently issued the Notice on Regulating the Administration of Exploration and Mining Rights for Rare Earth Minerals and Tungsten Mines, which requires that, in addition to the three cases, the continued acceptance of new rare earth mineral exploration and rare earths Mining and tungsten ore mining registration (including extended mining area) application.

The three situations are as follows: First, the pre-inspection, census, or necessary detailed investigation projects for rare earth ore carried out by the Central Geological Survey** or the provincial-level financial special funds shall be applied to the Ministry of Land and Resources with the release of the budget documents. After the completion of the project, the registration right shall be written off and the right to explore the minerals shall be written off. The state-owned mineral resources shall be managed according to the state-invested exploration. Second, there is a rare earth prospecting project that has been established by the state as a major large-scale rare earth enterprise group and applied for the purpose of balance of storage and storage. Third, the application for the newly established rare earth ore and tungsten ore mining rights should meet the requirements of total mining control and production capacity balance, and have total mining control indicators and do not break through the indicator setting. Among them, applicants for mining rights of rare earth minerals should have the qualifications of large-scale rare earth enterprise groups determined by the state.

The notice made it clear that the rare earth mineral prospecting right mining right is applied for transfer registration, and the transferee shall have the qualification of a large-scale rare earth enterprise group determined by the state. The notice made it clear that the application for the continuation of registration of rare earth minerals and tungsten minerals mining rights should meet the requirements for total mining control.

The circular clarified that mining of rare earth ore or tungsten mines should be included in the management of total control indicators for the exploitation of co-produced resources. Reserves for over-index mining should be reserved and must not be sold. Those who do not have reserve conditions or have insufficient reserve capacity shall not handle the expansion of the mining area and expand their production capacity. The notice requires that, if it belongs to the type of ionic rare earth deposits, it shall be managed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the “Mining on Further Regulating the Administration of Mining Right Transfer” category II minerals.

The circular emphasized that if the prospecting right of rare earth minerals and tungsten minerals cannot be transferred to mining rights for prospecting rights due to the restriction of policies, they should be registered after the completion of the census or necessary detailed investigation, and can apply for the retention of prospecting rights as required.

The notice clearly states that in the implementation of engineering construction projects to recycle rare earth resources, management measures shall be formulated, and provincial (district) land and resources authorities shall continue to organize recycling, utilization, or reserve into the total mining control index and strictly regulate management and supervision. The notice will be implemented from the date of issue and will be valid for 3 years. The Notice of the Ministry of Land and Resources on Distributing the Total Control Index of Tungsten Ore Mining in 2014 was discontinued.