The General Office of the Ministry of Land and Resources ("MLR") has recently distributed the Circular on Effectively Working on the Publication of Information on Prospection and Exploitation of Nationwide Mining Right Holders in 2018 (the "Circular").
The Circular maps out detailed requirements in seven respects, including "ramping up the supervision and guidance to increase information publication rate", "strengthening on-site checks to ensure substantial effects" and "optimizing systems and standards and standardizing procedural operations". The Circular expressly states that mining right holders brought into the list of subjects with abnormal operations last year shall undergo on-site checks at least once this year and be urged to make corrections. Further, the Circular calls for further improving measures for the administration of the said list of mining right holders with abnormal operation and tightening administration of including mining right holders in and removing them from the list, stipulating that those that shall be included in the list shall be included in the list in time under applicable procedures, while those that have made effective corrections shall be excluded from the list in time under applicable procedures; information about the mining right holders that are included in or excluded from the said list shall be made public in the Information Publication System for Prospection and Exploitation of Mining Right Holders and on the official portal. Moreover, the Circular proposes to explore ways of conditioning the excellence selection on mining right holders' credits in prospection and exploitation and take active measures to integrate the list of mining right holders with abnormal operations into the local government's credit platform.