Abstract: This article introduces the development of China’s legal framework for mineral resources across different historical periods, reflecting the evolution of China’s mining legislation since ancient times—particularly the arduous transition from a planned economy to a market economy following the founding of the People’s Republic of China, as well as the gradual shift in government management approaches from micro-level control to macro-level regulation. With a particular focus on the revision of the “Mineral Resources Law,” the legal system governing mineral resources is continuously being refined and improved.
Keywords: Mineral Resources Law, Legislative History

     I. Mineral Resource Legislation in Ancient China
The emergence and development of ancient Chinese mining were closely intertwined with the evolution of the economy and society. As early as the early stages of the slave society, bronze artifacts had already appeared, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods marked a transitional era from copper tools to iron tools. The extraction and smelting of copper and iron ores served as crucial milestones in the genesis and growth of ancient mining, accelerating economic development and the advancement of human civilization.
Ancient mining regulations emerged in response to the economic and social development needs of the mining industry, reflecting the will of the ruling class and possessing a distinct historical character. The earliest records of China’s ancient mining regulations date back to the pre-Qin period, with references found in both the "Zhou Li" and Guan Zhong’s "Guanzi." They are also mentioned in Han Fei’s "Han Feizi" and Sima Qian’s "Shiji." According to the "Zhou Li," "The Zhou official called 'Gu Ren' was responsible for managing areas rich in gold, jade, tin, and stone, imposing strict prohibitions to safeguard these resources. If these resources were to be extracted at the proper time, their locations would be recorded on maps and distributed among inspectors to ensure compliance with the prohibition orders." Thus, as early as more than 3,000 years ago during the Western Zhou dynasty, China had already established a relatively stringent system of supervision and management for mineral resource exploitation. In subsequent dynasties, as mining and smelting technologies advanced, policies governing mineral extraction and smelting—such as the state monopoly on salt and iron—were continually refined, promoting mineral development, increasing national revenue, and helping to consolidate centralized rule. From the Sui and Tang dynasties through the Ming dynasty, a policy of gradually opening up mining activities to the public was implemented, allowing private individuals to engage in mineral exploration and taxation thereof. However, these policies were often subject to frequent changes: for instance, during the early Qing dynasty, private mining was permitted and even encouraged; yet by the 40th year of the Kangxi reign, a complete ban on mining was imposed. Emperor Yongzheng stated: "The matter of mining... draws large crowds of people together, causing tremendous harm. Historically, miners have mostly been outlaws from various regions," and thus he firmly prohibited "pursuing this secondary profit," lest "outlaws gather in deep mountains and remote valleys." This policy was primarily driven by concerns about political stability and social order at the time, aiming to prevent the populace from using mining as an opportunity to secretly manufacture weapons and rebel against Qing rule. In practice, this policy largely stifled the development of the mining industry. Throughout the long succession of feudal dynasties, mining regulations were mostly issued in the form of imperial edicts; however, in later periods, rudimentary mining ordinances began to take shape.
The Qing dynasty made significant progress in legal system development, establishing a relatively complete legal framework. After the Opium War, the feudal legal system gradually disintegrated, and foreign legal cultures began to be introduced into China, giving rise to a reform and legal-amendment process at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It was during this period that China’s mining laws emerged and took shape. The late Qing era marked an important phase in the formation and gradual development of China’s early mining legislation. At that time, with the surge in state-run, privately-owned, and joint-venture mining enterprises, coupled with intensified imperialist exploitation of China’s mineral resources and the massive influx of foreign mining capital, the Qing court urgently needed to impose restrictions and regulations. Moreover, Western countries—including Japan—already had relatively well-developed mining laws that could serve as valuable references; thus, it became inevitable for China to formulate its own mining laws.
     II. Legislative Status of Mineral Resources in Modern China
The first modern mining regulation in China was the “22 Articles of Public Regulations for Mining and Railways,” formulated in the 24th year of the Guangxu reign (1898). Because equating railways with mining was deemed inappropriate, the Qing government later drew upon mining regulations from countries such as Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Belgium, and Japan, and renamed the document the “Regulations for Mining Affairs of the Great Qing.” These regulations were promulgated in the 33rd year of the Guangxu reign and were subsequently revised the following year. However, due to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, these regulations were never actually implemented. In the 2nd year of the Xuantong reign (1910), they were further revised. After more than a decade of twists and turns, this process finally resulted in the establishment of a relatively comprehensive early Chinese mining law.
In the 3rd year of the Republic of China (1914), the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce revised the Mining Regulations again, drawing on Japan’s Mining Law, and promulgated them by presidential decree. However, after implementation, the regulations drew considerable opposition. In the 5th year of the Republic of China (1916), the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce established a special Committee for Revising the Mining Law and invited the British lawyer Lindsey to draft a preliminary version of the Mining Law. Later that same year, another draft of the Mining Law was prepared. Yet it was not until the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930) that the Nationalist government formally promulgated the “Mining Law,” followed shortly thereafter by the issuance of detailed implementing rules, including the Rules for Mining Registration, the Rules for Mine Site Internships, and the Rules for Extraction of Earth and Rock Materials.
The founding of the People’s Republic of China marked the beginning of a brand-new era for China’s mining economy and its legal system. However, viewed overall, the development of China’s legal framework for mineral resources has been gradual and progressive, evolving in tandem with economic and social development and the deepening of reform and opening-up. This tortuous journey vividly reflects the transition of China’s socialist economic system from a planned economy to a market economy and the shift in government management from micro-level control to macro-level regulation.
     III. Legislative Status of Mineral Resources in New China
Immediately after the founding of New China, the Nationalist government’s “Mineral Resources Law” was abolished. Given the extremely weak state of geological exploration at the time and in order to quickly restore the national economy, the Executive Council Meeting held on August 25, 1950, decided to establish the China Geological Work Guidance Committee, with Li Siguang serving as its chairman, to take charge of the unified planning and leadership of geological work nationwide. On August 7, 1952, in response to the needs of the upcoming First Five-Year Plan and the emerging construction situation, the 17th Meeting of the Executive Council decided to set up the Ministry of Geology, thus laying the foundation for relatively centralized and unified management of mineral resource exploration in China. However, influenced by the Soviet Union’s planned economic management model, the functions of mineral resource development and management were divided among various industrial sectors according to specific mineral types. Moreover, during the mid-to-late 1950s, each industrial sector successively established its own geological exploration teams and management agencies. From then on, China’s mining administration entered a long period of departmental fragmentation and multi-headed management, directly affecting the unified and effective development of China’s mining legal system.
Meanwhile, in order to quickly restore and develop the mining industry, and taking into account the country’s economic conditions at the time as well as the economic structure emphasizing both public and private sectors and joint public-private ventures, the Administrative Council issued the “Provisional Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Mining” on April 18, 1951. These regulations primarily stipulated the tasks of reorganizing old mining areas, exploring and developing new mining areas, and defining the responsibilities of prospectors and miners. They also made it clear that all mineral resources were state-owned, yet allowed both state-run and privately-owned enterprises to coexist under certain conditions—reflecting the characteristic of the national economic recovery period, which permitted the conditional existence of capitalist commodity-economic elements. In terms of content, the legal origins of the “Provisional Regulations on Mining” lay in the earlier “Mining Law” of Old China; however, these regulations were a product of the socialist transformation of the capitalist economy, emerging during a specific historical period and playing a role in bridging the past and paving the way for the future.
The completion of the First Five-Year Plan and the socialist transformation of the private economy further consolidated the planned economic system and established the principle that all means of production are owned collectively by the whole people or by collectives, while natural resources are to be used free of charge. On this basis, the “Great Leap Forward” campaign that followed plunged the nation’s mining sector into chaos. However, after entering the period of comprehensive socialist construction, China’s mining production continued to be governed under a highly fragmented, centrally planned economic system. Exploration and exploitation of mineral resources were essentially monopolized and managed exclusively by the state. Moreover, management institutions and their respective powers became increasingly decentralized, gradually giving rise to a pattern of sectoral management based on specific mineral types. Under this system, the management of mineral resources was almost entirely carried out through administrative controls. Many units from different industrial sectors engaged in redundant exploration, single-purpose exploration, and blind exploration; they tended to exploit large deposits while neglecting smaller ones, rich deposits while ignoring poorer ones, and easy-to-extract deposits while discarding harder-to-reach ones. There was little emphasis on integrated exploration, integrated development, and comprehensive utilization of mineral resources. Particularly during the massive nationwide drive for steel production—the “Great Leap Forward”—mineral resources suffered severe damage and wastage, making the issue of resource conservation increasingly acute. On December 17, 1965, the State Council promulgated the “Provisional Regulations on the Protection of Mineral Resources,” which laid down specific provisions for the protection of mineral resources—centered on their conservation and rational utilization—from various stages of mineral resource development, including geological exploration, mine design, mining operations, ore dressing, smelting and metallurgy, processing of mineral products, and their use, as well as groundwater resource management.
With the completion of the socialist transformation of the private economy, a comprehensive socialist public ownership system and planned management mechanism in the mining sector also rapidly took shape. In practice, exploration rights and mining rights have become independent, non-transferable working and production rights granted by the government’s competent authorities to geological survey units and mining enterprises, respectively, and are closely tied to the issuance of geological exploration plans and mineral production plans. The state allocates funds to geological survey units and mining enterprises according to plan; geological survey units submit their geological findings uniformly for the state’s free use, and mineral products within the plans of state-owned mining enterprises are centrally allocated, distributed, and sold by the state. Under this administrative-command-dominated system, the development of laws and the rule of law cannot possibly receive due attention.
Before the Cultural Revolution, in addition to two relatively important regulations—the Provisional Regulations on Mining and the Trial Regulations on the Protection of Mineral Resources—several other regulations governing geological exploration had been formulated. However, laws and regulations covering areas such as mineral resource development management, comprehensive resource utilization, and environmental monitoring were largely absent. This inevitably affected the state’s ability to regulate the micro-level behavior of mining activities and to exercise macro-control over the mining economy.
During the decade of turmoil brought about by the Cultural Revolution, the legal and institutional framework for mineral resource management came to a complete standstill. A series of laws, regulations, standards, and procedures ceased to function, and government oversight virtually spiraled out of control. Protective regulations became mere empty words on paper, while efforts to conserve and rationally develop and utilize resources were branded as “conservative” and “reactionary.” As a result, the construction of a sound legal system for mining virtually ground to a halt.
The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee, held in 1978, determined that socialist economic construction should be the central focus, with simultaneous emphasis on both development and the rule of law. The reform and opening-up policy has injected vitality and dynamism into all sectors of the national economy and has also brought about profound changes in mineral resource development. The enactment of the Mineral Resources Law is an objective necessity for transforming the long-standing fragmented state of the mining sector, strengthening unified planning, promoting rational exploitation, implementing industry-wide management, and advancing reform. It is also an inevitable requirement for perfecting the socialist legal system.
On July 31, 1978, Sun Daguang, Director of the State Administration of Geology, formally proposed to the State Council that the country enact a “Law on Mineral Resources” and establish a specialized agency responsible for the unified management of mineral resources nationwide. The following year, under the leadership of the State Economic Commission, a drafting office for the “Law on Mineral Resources” was set up, led by the Ministry of Geology and involving departments such as metallurgy, coal, petroleum, chemical industry, building materials, and the nuclear industry. This marked the official start of the drafting process. The drafting office collected mining regulations from more than ten countries and conducted extensive research and surveys on domestic experience and lessons learned over the past 30 years in the management of mineral resources, as well as on existing relevant regulations. By early 1981, the fifth draft of the “Law on Mineral Resources (Draft)” had been completed. After the Ministry of Geology was renamed the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources in May 1982, appropriate adjustments were made to the draft. On October 30, 1984, the 13th draft of the “Law on Mineral Resources (Draft)” was reviewed and approved at a regular meeting of the State Council’s Standing Committee. At this meeting, it was pointed out that the legislative purpose of the “Law on Mineral Resources” was to protect mineral resources from damage, prevent pollution of the natural environment, and promote the revitalization of China’s mining industry. At the same time, the meeting laid down guiding principles for addressing issues such as small-scale mines operated by local authorities and communities, the division of responsibilities among departments overseeing the development, utilization, and management of groundwater resources, and conflicts and disputes between small local mines and large mines. These principles have had a significant impact on subsequent legislative and law-enforcement efforts.
Starting from February 1985, the Finance and Economic Committee, the Legal Committee, and the Legislative Affairs Office of the National People's Congress conducted deliberations on the “Draft Mineral Resources Law,” carried out research studies, held numerous coordination meetings, and repeatedly revised the draft. On March 19, 1986, the 15th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress reviewed and adopted the “Mineral Resources Law of the People’s Republic of China,” which came into effect on October 1 of the same year.
The main contents of the "Mineral Resources Law" are as follows: It clearly stipulates that mineral resources are owned by the state and are protected through a licensing system for prospecting rights and mining rights, as well as a system of paid exploitation of mineral resources. The law also defines the state’s guiding principles for the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources, specifies the legal status and management principles applicable to state-owned mines, collectively-owned township mines, and individual miners, and outlines the supervisory and administrative responsibilities of various government departments and local authorities. Moreover, the law lays down corresponding provisions covering resource taxes and fees, mineral reserves, geological data, mine supervision, occupational safety and health, and environmental protection, all in accordance with the various stages and processes involved in mineral resource exploration and exploitation. The promulgation and implementation of the "Mineral Resources Law" marked the beginning of a legally based approach to the exploration, exploitation, and regulatory management of China’s mineral resources. Over the subsequent decade, China’s legislative framework for mineral resources was comprehensively advanced, gradually establishing a relatively complete system of laws and regulations governing mineral resources. This included the establishment of systems such as the licensing system for mineral resource exploration and exploitation, the system of paid exploitation of mineral resources, and the system for supervising and managing mineral resource development.
     IV. Current Trends in Mineral Resource Legislation
As reform and opening-up have continued to deepen—particularly following the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which established the goal of building a socialist market economy—the mining industry in our country has achieved remarkable progress and undergone profound transformations. The new situation has placed fresh demands on the legal framework for the development of mineral resources in China. Driven by multifaceted forces within society, the revision of the Mineral Resources Law has been put squarely on the agenda. After conducting thorough research, widely soliciting public opinions, and repeatedly deliberating, the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources finally submitted a draft amendment, which was reviewed and adopted at the 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on August 29, 1996.
This revision strengthens the fundamental principle of state ownership of mineral resources, improves the management system for prospecting rights and mining rights, stipulates that prospecting rights and mining rights shall be obtained through payment and transferred in accordance with the law, and clarifies the statutory duties of local governments at all levels to maintain order in the mining sector, as well as the administrative penalty powers of grassroots mineral resource management authorities.
Since the promulgation and implementation of the Mineral Resources Law 20 years ago, the development of its supporting regulations has been continuously advancing in response to changing circumstances and enforcement needs. To date, a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for mineral resources has basically taken shape, comprising laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules, local regulations, local government rules, and a series of normative documents.
However, since the 1996 amendment to the Mineral Resources Law was only a partial revision rather than a comprehensive overhaul, many significant problems still remain in its content and structure, making it difficult to meet the needs of developing a socialist market economy. This legislative lag has already directly affected key areas such as the establishment of mining rights, market operations, equal protection of mining right holders’ rights and interests, supervision and management of mineral resources, and ecological protection of mining areas. Following the proposal by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in 2003 to accelerate the revision of the Mineral Resources Law, the Ministry of Natural Resources promptly set up a dedicated team and launched extensive research and feasibility studies. The new round of revisions to the Mineral Resources Law is now being vigorously pursued. This revision, guided by the Scientific Outlook on Development and based on the tiered classification and management of mineral resources, focuses on establishing and perfecting the property rights system for prospecting rights and mining rights, with the goal of promoting the rational exploration and utilization of mineral resources. Underpinned by the foundations of centralized and unified management of mineral resources and the development of a thriving mining rights market, this revision is also driven by the growing recognition that the capacity to secure mineral resources has become an increasingly critical bottleneck restricting sustainable economic and social development. Moreover, given the widespread societal concern—from top to bottom—about resource issues, the emergence of a brand-new Mineral Resources Law that meets the requirements of building a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly society has become an inevitable necessity.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the legal framework governing mineral resources in China since ancient times, highlighting the tortuous evolution of this framework across different historical periods—particularly the transformation of the economic system from planned to market-oriented since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the shift in government management from micro-level control to macro-level regulation. The legal system for mineral resources is currently being further refined, with a particular emphasis on amendments to the Mineral Resources Law.
Key words: mineral resources law; law-making