Corruption arising from the approval process of mining rights has long been criticized by society and remains a key focus of inspections conducted by disciplinary inspection authorities. Recently, reporters learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources that, in order to effectively curb rent-seeking through abuse of power, the ministry is leveraging the upgrade and renovation of the unified numbering system for mining rights to set clear red lines for mining right approvals and ensure that the entire approval process is carried out strictly in accordance with laws and regulations.
　　The Ministry of Natural Resources requires that, during the approval process for mining rights, issuing authorities must be truthful and accurate when filling out supplementary information, ensuring that all steps are fully documented and properly filed for future reference. The accountability and enforcement against administrative misconduct and illegal approvals will also be further strengthened. It is understood that, throughout the approval process, the numbering system will automatically record and permanently store all basic information—including data submitted by issuing authorities at various levels, the basis for issuance, and the responsible individuals.
　　To strengthen dynamic monitoring and post-event supervision, the Ministry of Natural Resources will establish a system for reporting on allocation numbers. It will analyze the status of allocation and licensing in various regions, regularly release nationwide reports on mining rights allocation, and promptly issue warnings about any unusual situations. For regions with a high frequency of abnormal cases, on-site verification will be conducted as necessary. Any instances of improper licensing found will be ordered to be rectified and corrected.
　　Yao Huajun, Director of the Mineral Resources Development Administration Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, clearly stated that the overall guiding principle behind this upgrade and renovation of the mineral rights unified numbering system is: clarifying responsibilities and authorities, optimizing processes, enhancing efficiency, and strengthening supervision. The numbering system is designed to assist issuing authorities in their review process—it does not replace the issuing authorities’ responsibility for conducting the review themselves. Clarifying responsibilities and authorities means achieving... “ The issuer is responsible. ” Ensure that power and responsibility are aligned.
　　Yao Huajun stated that for regulations with clear definitions and no exceptions, as well as for checks on critical foundational registration data, if the requirements are not met, no assignment of numbers shall be granted under any circumstances.
　　According to the regulations, the allocation system will not assign a number under any of the following circumstances: To ensure the authenticity and authority of basic information on mining rights, the allocation system will not approve applications if the entered data is not standardized or contains logical errors. Furthermore, the allocation system will strictly reject any application that fails to comply with important laws, regulations, and institutional provisions concerning approval authorities, transfer methods, public disclosure, industrial policies, and other related areas, in strict accordance with the requirements of administrative governance based on law.
　　Yao Huajun stated that this upgrade of the allocation system is phased, and the next step will be to continue refining and improving it based on actual operational performance. First, we aim to better serve the public. Building on the existing foundation, we will further expand service functionalities and actively explore ways to leverage the allocation system to provide convenient services such as spatial queries for mining rights, statistical analysis of mining right registration information, and real-time tracking of application progress.
　　Second, we are actively exploring online approval processes. The “Notice on Standardizing Administrative Approval Practices of State Council Departments and Improving Related Work” issued this year by the State Council proposes exploring the implementation of online approval procedures, with the goal of achieving online processing for the entire process—from application and acceptance to review and feedback—across all stages. Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources’ administrative service hall is conducting research on online remote applications.
　　Third, we will optimize and reengineer the mineral rights management process, fully leveraging the big data capabilities of the allocation system’s underlying database. We will accelerate the sharing and seamless integration of data with other mining administration functions such as annual inspections and law enforcement, thereby fully harnessing the role of information technology in mineral resource management.