According to recently released first-quarter statistical data on land and resources from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the mineral rights market continued the sluggish trend seen last year. In the first quarter, a total of 139 exploration rights were granted nationwide, down 18.8% year-on-year; the corresponding transfer fees amounted to 127 million yuan, a decrease of 65.9% year-on-year. A total of 246 mining rights were granted, down 32.8% year-on-year; the transfer fees for these rights reached 1.152 billion yuan, a decline of 5.8% year-on-year.
Relevant officials from the Department of Regulation and Monitoring of the Ministry of Natural Resources analyzed that supply-side structural reform has driven continued adjustments in the mineral rights market, while overall overcapacity in resource products has kept the mineral rights market sluggish. Looking at fixed-asset investment, in the first quarter, mining investment reached 117.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.1%, making it the only industrial sector to experience negative growth. Among large-scale mining enterprises nationwide, losses totaled 5.41 billion yuan—a situation unique to the mining industry, compared with profits of 63.35 billion yuan in the same period last year. Although prices of major mineral products rebounded somewhat in the first quarter, due to multiple factors—including slow global economic growth, weak market demand, and overall overcapacity in mineral production—China’s mining sector as a whole remains in a deep adjustment phase. The continued decline in national exploration investment also reflects a marked lack of investment confidence among enterprises. According to the “2015 China Natural Resources Bulletin,” nationwide geological exploration spending in 2015 amounted to approximately 90 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of about 20%, marking the third consecutive year of decline.
The official stated that addressing overcapacity will be the primary task for the coming period. In March, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Steel and Coal Industries in Resolving Overcapacity and Achieving Recovery and Development," clearly stipulating that approval of coal mining area boundaries will be halted within three years, applications for establishing new coal mining rights or expanding production scales without prior approval will no longer be accepted, and no land-use plans will be allocated for new capacity projects in industries suffering from severe overcapacity that have not been approved and filed according to national regulations. Furthermore, despite overall resource and capacity oversupply, demand for certain new energy and new material sectors continues to grow relatively rapidly. Influenced by the rapid development of the new-energy vehicle industry, demand for lithium concentrate has surged, lithium hydroxide production capacity has expanded rapidly, and demand for new materials such as graphene, fluorinated salts, and titanium dioxide remains robust.
The data released this time also show that in the first quarter, a total of 304 geological disasters occurred nationwide, resulting in 43 deaths and 10 injuries, with direct economic losses amounting to 86.061 million yuan. The number of geological disasters increased by 1.3 times year-on-year, and both the number of deaths and missing persons and the direct economic losses rose significantly—by a factor of two and 1.7 times, respectively. Nationwide, 15 geological disasters were successfully forecasted, helping to prevent 358 casualties and avoid direct economic losses totaling 4.08 million yuan. (Source: China Mining News)
