Recently, the Department of Natural Resources of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region issued a notice to carry out a summary and evaluation of the “14th Five-Year Plan” for mineral resources at the prefectural and municipal levels, and to kick off the preparation of the “15th Five-Year Plan.”

The Xinjiang Department has requested that all localities conduct a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of the “14th Five-Year Plan” for mineral resources, evaluating the achievement of planned targets, progress on key tasks, and overall effectiveness of plan implementation. They are also asked to summarize implementation experiences, analyze existing problems and their underlying causes, and put forward targeted recommendations for drafting the “15th Five-Year Plan.” When preparing the “15th Five-Year Plan” for mineral resources, localities should focus on enhancing the capacity to ensure the security of mineral resource supplies, scientifically set planning targets and indicators, carefully plan key projects and priority initiatives, and strengthen the guiding and regulatory role of mineral resource planning. First, we must enhance spatial alignment with the “Three Zones and Three Lines,” actively expand exploration, prospecting, and development areas, intensify basic geological surveys, and optimize resource allocation and the issuance of mining rights. Second, we must strengthen scientific and technological innovation to comprehensively improve the level and efficiency of resource exploration, development, and utilization. Third, we must increase policy support, refine the coordinated system for strategic mineral exploration, production, reserves, and sales, and promote rapid increases in mineral reserves and production, as well as the green and low-carbon transformation of the mining industry and the development of new-quality productivity in the mining sector.

The Xinjiang Department emphasized that all localities should make full use of the existing planning database results and carry out the construction of new planning databases. The construction of planning databases should be conducted in parallel with, and approved concurrently with, the preparation of plans. The Autonomous Region’s Department of Natural Resources is responsible for quality inspections of planning databases at all levels within its jurisdiction, and will compile a unified regional planning database for submission to the Ministry of Natural Resources, thereby integrating it into the “single-map” management system for natural resource management and territorial spatial planning. Before the approval and implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, exploration and mining planning blocks designated under the 14th Five-Year Plan but not yet put into operation may be released onto the market and promptly incorporated into the 15th Five-Year Plan.