Recently, the Department of Natural Resources of Guizhou Province, in collaboration with the Provincial Public Security Department, the Provincial Energy Administration, and other relevant agencies, jointly issued a work plan to launch a special campaign across the province aimed at severely cracking down on illegal mining of mineral resources and resolutely curbing such unlawful activities as theft of mineral resources.

The Guizhou Provincial Department requires that natural resources departments at all levels closely monitor key links and, based on the actual conditions of mineral resource endowments in their respective regions—particularly for minerals such as mercury, coal, gold, bauxite, phosphorus, antimony, fluorite, and manganese—carefully assess the risks of illegal mining and carry out thorough inspections. Special attention should be paid to abandoned mines that have already been sealed and shut down, as well as suspicious areas surrounding them, remote mountainous regions, secluded forest areas, and exposed shallow mineral resource zones. Warning signs must be strictly erected in accordance with requirements, and illegal mining sites must be recorded in detailed registers and subjected to enhanced supervision.

The Guizhou Provincial Department emphasized the need to adhere to source-based prevention and control, addressing violations at their earliest stages and in their smallest forms, thereby nipping illegal activities in the bud. Efforts to investigate and punish illegal activities will be intensified: for those engaged in unlicensed mining, in addition to legally sanctioning the violations, the local government will be urged to shut down illegal mining sites. For those conducting mining beyond authorized boundaries, in addition to confiscating illegally mined minerals and illicit gains and imposing fines according to law, mines will be ordered to return to their legally designated mining areas for operations. At the sites where boundary violations have occurred, measures such as sealing or isolation must be promptly implemented, and relevant authorities will be promptly notified to strengthen supervision in accordance with their respective responsibilities. The crackdown on criminal liability for illegal activities will be stepped up; cases suspected of criminal offenses will be resolutely referred to judicial authorities for prosecution, and it is strictly prohibited to substitute administrative penalties for referral or to use completion of corrective measures as a substitute for referral.