On December 28, the China Mining Association held the 2023 China Mining Top Ten News Conference in Beijing. This year’s list of China’s Top Ten Mining News was jointly selected and screened by the China Mining Association and the editorial team of “China Mining” magazine, and then put to a vote by the vice-presidential units, standing director units of the China Mining Association, as well as relevant industry associations and provincial mining associations (associations).
　　At the press conference, Che Changbo, Secretary-General of the China Mining Association, read out the Top Ten News Stories in China’s Mining Industry for 2023.
　　1. The State Council’s Executive Meeting in principle approved the “Draft Amendment to the Mineral Resources Law of the People’s Republic of China.”
　　On December 1, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council chaired a regular executive meeting of the State Council, listened to a report on the comprehensive inspection of promoting high-quality development, deliberated and clarified several measures for accelerating the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, discussed the draft amendment to the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China, and examined related work on the industrialization of biological breeding.
　　The meeting discussed and in principle approved the “Draft Amendment to the Mineral Resources Law of the People’s Republic of China,” and decided to submit the draft amendment to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for deliberation. The meeting pointed out that mineral resources are an important material foundation for economic and social development. It is essential, in light of changing circumstances, to revise the Mineral Resources Law in a timely manner so as to ensure the lawful exploration, development, and protection of mineral resources and safeguard the security of strategic national resources. We must accelerate the advancement of exploration and development, increase reserves and boost production, deepen international cooperation, strengthen the construction of reserve systems, and solidify the foundation for ensuring mineral resource security. We should vigorously promote innovation in technological equipment, advance the green and intelligent development of the industry, and enhance the resilience and competitiveness of the mineral resource industrial chain.

　　2. Ministry of Natural Resources: Launching the Implementation of a New Round of Strategic Actions for Mineral Exploration Breakthroughs
　　On July 11, at the “Authoritative Departments Discuss the Start” series of thematic press conferences held by the State Council Information Office, a relevant official from the Ministry of Natural Resources stated that a new round of strategic actions to achieve breakthroughs in mineral exploration will be fully launched and implemented, thereby boosting vitality in the mining market.
　　Minister Wang Guanghua of the Ministry of Natural Resources introduced the following measures: First, we will improve the management system for collecting revenue from the transfer of mining rights. The collection method will be changed from a one-time payment to an annual collection based on sales revenue, primarily during the mine’s production phase. Second, we will refine the registration and management of mineral resource exploration and mining activities. We will encourage comprehensive exploration of mineral resources. We will liberalize the secondary market for prospecting rights, remove restrictions on the duration of transfers of prospecting rights obtained through bidding, auction, or public listing, and allow the transfer of prospecting rights. We will also streamline the requirements for applying for mining rights registration and the approval procedures, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the approval process.
　　In addition, we need to deepen the reform of mineral resource management. Specifically, we should allow mining rights for marginal resources and deep-seated resources to be transferred via agreements to the same entity; adjust the deduction ratio for the extension of exploration rights; refine the integrated exploration-and-production system for oil and gas; extend the retention period for exploration rights; and improve the competitive bidding process for mining rights—all in order to promote the exploration and development of mineral resources. Moving forward, the Ministry of Natural Resources, together with relevant departments, will continue to optimize and refine related policies, thereby creating a favorable environment for investment in mineral exploration and development by various social entities.
　　Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources is guiding localities to promote the “clean mine” land-transfer approach. By strengthening preparatory work prior to the transfer of mining rights, enhancing service efficiency, and bolstering guarantees for land, forest, and grassland use, the ministry is accelerating the approval process for key mining projects, thereby stimulating domestic demand and ensuring steady economic growth. These robust measures are firmly supporting the implementation of the new round of strategic actions aimed at achieving breakthroughs in mineral exploration.

　　3. A world-class giant single-body gold deposit has been discovered in Shandong.
　　On May 17, Shandong Province achieved a new breakthrough in gold exploration—The Xiling Village gold exploration project in Laizhou City passed the expert review of mineral resource reserves organized by the Shandong Provincial Department of Natural Resources. The preliminary assessment indicates that the Xiling gold deposit has added nearly 200 tons of gold reserves, bringing the total reserves to 580 tons. This makes it the largest single gold deposit ever discovered in China and a world-class giant single gold deposit.
　　The Xiling Gold Mine is characterized by abundant resources and excellent economic viability. The main ore body of the Xiling Gold Mine has a maximum strike length of 1,996 meters and a maximum vertical extent of 2,057 meters. The ore body can reach a maximum thickness of 62.35 meters, with an average grade of 4.26 grams per ton. It is expected to sustain continuous full-capacity production for more than 30 years at the SanShanDao Gold Mine—a super-large mine with a planned production capacity of up to 10,000 tons per day. The mine’s estimated potential economic value exceeds 200 billion yuan.

　　4. China Discovers Its First Deep Coalbed Gas Field with Reserves of Hundreds of Billions of Cubic Meters
　　On October 23, CNOOC announced the discovery of China’s first deep coalbed methane field—Shenfu Deep Coalbed Methane Field—in the eastern margin of the Ordos Basin, at a depth of 2,000 meters. The field has proven geological reserves exceeding 110 billion cubic meters.
　　The Shenfu deep coalbed gas field is located in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, on the eastern edge of the Ordos Basin. The coal seams are primarily buried at a depth of around 2,000 meters, with individual seam thicknesses ranging from 6.2 to 23.3 meters. The average gas content per ton of coal reaches 15 cubic meters. Currently, CNOOC has deployed over 100 exploration wells in this region, with the highest daily production from a single well reaching 26,000 cubic meters.

　　5. The "Opinions on Further Strengthening Safety Production in Mining Operations" have been released, guiding more mines to embark on a path of intelligent and high-quality development.
　　The “Opinions on Further Strengthening Mine Safety Production,” the first guiding document in the field of mine safety production approved by the Party Central Committee and the State Council since the founding of New China, was released to the public on September 6. The document focuses on fundamentally eliminating potential hazards and addressing issues at their root causes, and puts forward a series of major tasks and important measures aimed at strengthening and improving mine safety production efforts.
　　The "Opinions" lay out targeted arrangements and measures in areas including strictly enforcing safety access standards for mines, promoting the transformation and upgrading of mining enterprises, preventing and resolving major safety risks, strengthening the principal responsibility of enterprises, implementing the responsibilities of local Party and government leaders as well as those of regulatory and supervisory departments, and advancing law-based governance of mine safety. The "Opinions" also make specific arrangements for the intelligent development of mines, encouraging the mechanized upgrading and transformation of small- and medium-sized mines and the automated and intelligent upgrading of large-scale mines. They call for accelerating the intelligent development of mines that face severe hazards or are located at high altitudes, and for establishing a number of benchmark mines that are fully automated and intelligently operated. It is understood that the National Mine Safety Administration will adopt multiple measures to promote the construction of intelligent mines and guide more mines toward a path of high-quality, intelligent development.

　　6. China’s first unmanned mining transport robot has officially begun operation in a mining area.
　　On November 24, at the Dananhu No. 2 Mine of Guoshen Hami Coal & Power Company under the State Energy Group, after half a month of trial operation, China’s first unmanned transport robot designed for open-pit mining in general transportation scenarios was officially put into service at the mine site. This robot can replace heavy-duty mining truck drivers in performing high-risk, high-intensity tasks and is capable of handling long-distance, heavy-load uphill transportation on steep slopes and in complex operational environments in open-pit mines.
　　The newly commissioned robot is the country’s first universal-purpose mining robot designed for open-pit operations. It replaces the traditional cab with a dedicated equipment compartment, integrating all hardware components into a single unit and eliminating the need for driver-controlled operations. To address the challenging operating conditions—characterized by rough terrain and heavy dust—sensor equipment has been optimized, and a completely new maintenance and operational logic as well as a human-machine interaction mechanism have been developed. This enables seamless switching among debugging mode, remote-control mode, and autonomous driving mode as required, and some functions can even be remotely controlled via an app.

　　7. AI large models begin commercial deployment in the mining sector.
　　On July 18, Shandong Energy Group, Huawei, and Yunding Technology jointly launched the world’s first commercial AI large model for the energy industry—the Pangu Mining Large Model. This model will address the challenges of deploying AI in the mining sector and lay a solid foundation for the large-scale integration of AI into mining operations. The first batch of scenario applications has been developed, covering areas such as coal mining, tunneling, main transportation, auxiliary transportation, safety supervision, coal preparation, and coking.
　　As an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of China’s energy industry, smart mines have attracted substantial R&D and construction efforts from numerous enterprises. However, due to several common pain points, the level of intelligence across the industry remains uneven. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, smart mine development is poised to break through barriers, thanks to the empowering influence of AI technologies.

　　8. Zijin Mining Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary and Rises to No. 6 on Forbes’ Global Metals and Mining Companies Ranking
　　On August 11, the 30th-anniversary celebration of Zijin Mining Group was held at its headquarters in Shanghang. The event was attended by 14 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as experts and representatives from renowned universities, research institutes, design firms, and mining industry peers and collaborating organizations, all of whom came to offer their congratulations.
　　According to the 2023 Global 2,000 Companies ranking released by the globally renowned business magazine Forbes, Zijin Mining has entered the top 300 for the first time, climbing to 284th place—a jump of 41 positions from last year. Among the global metal mining companies listed, Zijin Mining ranks 6th, up one spot from last year. Among the global gold companies listed, Zijin Mining continues to hold the No. 1 position.

　　9. Two departments: Continue the policy of reducing the coal resource tax by 50% for coal resources replaced through backfill mining.
　　On August 21, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued an announcement stating that, in order to encourage intensive extraction and utilization of coal resources, from September 1, 2023, to December 31, 2027, the resource tax on coal replaced through backfill mining will be reduced by 50%.

　　10. For the first time in China, a full-face hard-rock tunneling machine has been used in the construction of underground iron ore mines.
　　On December 10, the TBM full-face tunneling machine “Jishike” was launched at the Xian’anshan Iron Ore Project of Ansteel. This marks the first time this equipment has been used in underground iron ore mining construction in China. Compared with the traditional drill-and-blast method, the comprehensive construction efficiency has increased by more than three times.
　　This project marks the first-ever application of TBMs in underground mine construction, pioneering the research and application of key TBM technologies and equipment both domestically and internationally.
　　The Xian'anshan Iron Ore Project, which broke ground in November 2022, is China's largest single underground iron ore mine. The first TBM deployed for the project, named “Jishi,” has a total length of 188 meters, an excavation diameter of 7.03 meters, and a total weight of 1,200 tons. It boasts advantages such as rapid tunneling speed, environmental friendliness, and high overall efficiency, enabling it to carry out tunnel construction even under complex geological conditions where conventional drill-and-blast methods would be difficult to apply.