First, the main problems existing in the current commercial mineral exploration
At present, although commercial mineral exploration has made great progress on the whole, there is still a big gap compared with the demand for mineral resources in economic and social development. Some major mineral resources constraints have not been alleviated, and some are becoming more and more prominent. The main problems are as follows.
(A) the development of mineral exploration can not keep up with the needs of national economic development, especially the risk exploration is relatively weak.
At present, the development of mineral exploration in China can't keep up with the demand of mining industry, and the development of mining industry can't keep up with the demand of economic and social development. In recent years, the gap between supply and demand of resources in China has continued to widen, the import of mineral products has risen sharply, and the dependence on the international raw material market has become higher and higher. Due to the shortage of major raw materials markets, the prices of almost all raw materials and their products have risen sharply, and the trade deficit has expanded rapidly. In 2005, the total import and export trade of mineral products and related products in China reached US$ 307.495 billion, up 27.58% year-on-year. In recent years, the relationship between supply and demand of mineral resources in China has shown a new feature of "two increases and two decreases": that is, the consumption of mineral products has grown rapidly, exceeding the growth rate of production; The import volume and value of mineral products have increased rapidly, and the dependence on foreign countries has been increasing; The reserves of major mineral resources are reduced and the degree of protection is reduced; The production capacity of major mines has decreased, and the contradiction between supply and demand has intensified. With the further development of China's rapid economic growth, the contradiction between supply and demand of important mineral resources is getting worse. If we can't make a major breakthrough in the exploration and prospecting of important minerals in the near future, we will rely on imports for a long time to solve the shortage of bulk minerals such as oil, iron, copper, aluminum, manganese, chromium and potassium salt. In terms of mineral exploration investment, the proportion of mineral exploration capital investment in total mining output value is low. In 2003, the total output value of mining in Fujian Province was 6.07 billion yuan, and the mineral exploration was only 52.95 million yuan, accounting for 0.9% of the total output value, of which the total output value of metal minerals and energy minerals was 3.44 billion yuan, and the proportion of exploration investment was 65.438+0.5%, which was not high either. In 2003, the total mining output value of Jiangxi Province was 8.58 billion yuan, and the exploration investment was only 50.62 million yuan, accounting for 0.59% of the total mining output value. At the same time, although the investment subjects tend to be diversified and the proportion of social investment is rising, according to analysis, there are very few real risk exploration funds. Many projects being explored now are mostly based on projects that have been done in the past and have considerable foundation, and not many are actually engaged in risk exploration.
(2) The newly discovered ore points (spots) are generally in a downward trend, with few major breakthroughs.
Compared with the history, since 1990s, the drilling workload in mineral exploration in China has been greatly reduced, and the newly discovered mineral sites show a corresponding decreasing trend every year. There is a slight upward trend after 2002 (as shown in Figure 3- 18). At present, most of the mining rights or exploration targets have been discovered in the 1980s and 1990s. At present, most of the exploration funds are also invested in these places, and very few are used for risk exploration or general survey in blank areas, basically eating the property left over from the past. According to the investigation in Liaoning and Gansu provinces, the mineral exploration results obtained by developing the past secondary data account for about 1/2 ~ 3/4. The main reason is that it is difficult for ordinary enterprises to bear the high investment and high risk to carry out work in areas with low basic geological work in the new district. Therefore, in this sense, it is difficult for commercial mineral exploration to achieve sustainable development at present.
Figure 3-18 New Discovery of Mineral Exploration since 1980s
(3) The newly added reserves can't keep up with the consumption of reserves.
From 1999 to 2003, the output of petroleum, steel and copper in China increased by 1.2%, 18.5% and 10.4% respectively, and the consumption increased by 8.4%, 20.4% and 29.0% respectively. It can be seen that the growth of mineral consumption far exceeds the growth of output, and the growth of output exceeds the growth of resources. Take iron ore as an example. By 20 10 and 2020, the predicted demand for iron ore in China will be 529 million tons and 534 million tons respectively, and the iron ore import will be 654.38+66 million tons and 654.38+58 million tons respectively. But by 2004, all these figures were broken, the import volume and import volume of mineral products increased rapidly, and the dependence on foreign countries increased continuously. The reserves of major mineral resources are decreasing and the degree of protection is decreasing. The growth of mineral reserves can't keep up with the consumption of mineral reserves, resulting in negative reserves growth.
(D) the old mine resources crisis, the shortage of alternative resources.
Most major production mines in China have entered the middle and late stage. According to the prediction of relevant parties, the actual iron ore production capacity will disappear by 54% within 20 years, and the production capacity of nine non-ferrous metal bases will decline; By 20 10, lead, zinc, tungsten and tin ore will decrease by 6 1% ~ 74%, and copper will also decrease obviously. The remaining recoverable reserves of important minerals have generally declined. For example, Gejiu tin mine in Yunnan has accumulated proven reserves of 2 million tons. After long-term and massive mining, the basic reserve of this mine is only 303,000 tons, which is only enough for mining for 5 years. The crisis of old mine resources and the shortage of alternative resources have aroused great concern of the country.
(E) Commercial mineral exploration exists the phenomenon of "living on one's laurels"
According to the investigation, the current setting of exploration right is based on the results of the original state-funded exploration. Although great achievements have been made, most of them are "secondary development" of past geological work data, which belongs to the type of "standing still" There is not much investment in real risk investigation. Investors attach great importance to the income from the development of mineral exploration results, and are not enthusiastic about the high-risk commercial mineral exploration process. Judging from the mineral investment of exploration funds, energy minerals (mainly coal), precious metal minerals and non-ferrous metal minerals account for a relatively high proportion. Judging from the rapid economic development in China, the strong demand for resources will remain for a long time. Therefore, the pace of resource development will be faster and faster, and it is difficult to meet the needs of sustainable economic development only by relying on the family property left over from the past. Therefore, how to encourage and promote appropriate scale funds to invest in the exploration of new mining areas is an unavoidable major issue related to the sustainable supply of mineral resources.
(6) Insufficient funds for mineral exploration.
Mineral exploration capital is the most important factor and driving force of exploration and production activities. With the reform of geological prospecting system, a large number of state-owned capital has withdrawn from the field of mineral exploration, leaving only a small part (such as the part used for mineral exploration in geological survey, resource compensation fee and localized geological prospecting fee base), which is far from enough to undertake the mission of providing mineral resources reserves for China's mining development. After the state capital withdrew from mineral exploration, the market capital was not introduced simultaneously, and the social capital investment was obviously insufficient, which led to the absence of mineral exploration capital. In addition, the mining capital market is not yet mature, and the venture capital of mineral exploration can only be raised by direct investment, and the indirect financing method has not started at all.
(7) There are many problems in the mining right market.
In the operation of mining rights, the market system centered on mining rights market has not yet been formed, and the market access and exit mechanism and operation rules are not perfect and standardized, and the primary market is more important than the secondary market. Various exploration elements have not been effectively allocated, and the whole mineral exploration activity is in a state of low output and high cost, such as the backlog of exploration rights, funds, technology and exploration labor.
(8) The brain drain and aging of geological prospecting team are very serious.
The shortage of geological talents is becoming one of the important bottlenecks restricting the great development of geological work. On the one hand, affected by the depression of geological work in previous years, the brain drain is serious, and the older generation of geological talents gradually retire; On the other hand, the subsequent talent team training can not meet the needs of the development of geological work under the new situation, and there are few technical backbones who can engage in field work, resulting in a talent gap. In particular, the lack of technical backbone has seriously affected the development of geological prospecting. At present, it is a common phenomenon that it is difficult for state-owned geological prospecting units to recruit fresh graduates and retain talents. With the increase of geological tasks, there is a general shortage of geological talents, especially the backbone talents who are directly engaged in field geological work. In order to solve the urgent need, many geological prospecting units can only hire retired geological talents to engage in field geological exploration. Geological talents are not only insufficient in number and backbone, but also seriously unbalanced in structure. The number of young and middle-aged geological backbone talents is small, and technical forces such as geophysical and geochemical exploration, surveying and drilling are extremely scarce, and skilled talents are also very scarce. Senior geologists engaged in this field are very scarce.
(9) The demand of public welfare geological survey and commercial mineral exploration is not connected enough to meet the demand of commercial mineral exploration for basic geological survey.
At present, there are many problems in the management and service of data collection, and investors have a strong reaction to the phenomenon of "commonweal geology is not commonweal". Due to the lack of supporting policies and regulations, a large number of geological data can not be provided to the public. There are a lot of excellent geological data, and the information resources of data collection institutions are insufficient. The management of geological data collection is not in place, and an effective collection management and supervision system has not been established. Geological data production units fail to submit data on time and with good quality according to relevant regulations. A large number of geological data are not submitted in time, which leads to insufficient and untimely authoritative data of data acquisition institutions. The system of data collection is not smooth. Some geological survey project undertakers only submit data to the data management department of the Bureau of Geological Exploration, but not to government departments according to the Regulations on the Management of Geological Data. The management and service level of geoscience database is not high. The decentralized management of data information forms an information island, and the technologies and systems on which storage, maintenance and service depend are largely heterogeneous, with a low degree of standardization, which greatly increases the difficulty of data information management and application of results. Decentralized data organization and management mode lead to low information enjoyment and waste of resources. The infrastructure level of data warehouse, accessories and modern information technology equipment of data collection institutions is generally poor, the data storage conditions are poor, and the ability to provide services through the network is not strong. Limited by the number and quality of staff in collection institutions, it is difficult to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth study of geological data. The existing achievements can not be released to the society in time, the related needs can not be met in time, the service level is low, and it can only maintain daily work and can not adapt to the great changes brought by modern information technology to data work.
Second, the reason analysis
The problems existing in commercial mineral exploration are fundamentally the products of the system transition period and the problems in reform and development. The main reasons are:
(A) there are misunderstandings, and the inertia of the traditional operating mechanism is large.
Because mineral exploration has been separated from mining for a long time under the planned economy system, characterized by the verification system of geological exploration fees and the free use of geological achievements, an operating mechanism of "state funding-exploration by geological prospecting units-mining by mining enterprises-state funding for prospecting" has been formed, emphasizing "prospecting for the country". Therefore, we are used to taking commercial mineral exploration as a part of geological work and relying on geological work mechanism in management system and investment mechanism. In the current transitional period, the inertia of this traditional operating mechanism is still very large. In fact, commercial mineral exploration should be an inseparable part of mining industry, and mineral exploration should be an indispensable link in mining reproduction, whether from the physical form, value form or capital cycle of exploration and production. It is the fundamental way to realize a virtuous circle of commercial mineral exploration investment to obtain returns through subsequent mining sales revenue and realize expanded reproduction. Therefore, only by taking mineral exploration as a part of mining industry can we fundamentally solve the problem of combining geological work with its service objects; In the past, long-term integration was not very close, because geological work was paid by the state, and mineral exploration could be reproduced without relying on subsequent mining development. As shown in figure 3- 19.
Fig. 3- 19 schematic diagram of the relationship between commercial mineral exploration and geological work and mining industry
(B) imperfect policies and regulations, inadequate protection of rights and interests
At present, there are some phenomena in actual work, such as non-compliance with laws, poor supervision and so on. The Mineral Resources Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that the state's collection of mineral resources compensation fees reflects the owner's rights and interests, and the collection of mineral resources tax by state power is a part of national income; The collection of royalties for exploration and mining rights reflects the paid acquisition of exploration and mining rights. Due to the collection and disposal of the proceeds from the paid transfer of exploration and mining rights, there is no unified method in the central government, and local governments at all levels divide the proceeds by themselves, with 70% in cities (counties) and 30% in provinces (districts). The rights and interests of national owners of mineral resources have not been reflected. Because of the strong reaction of the state-owned geological prospecting units, in order to reflect the technical labor value of the exploration results of the state-owned geological prospecting units, the premium part of the legal mining rights after deducting the input cost is given to the geological prospecting units 10% ~ 20% benefit. Many contents of the current Mineral Resources Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and related laws and regulations can no longer meet the requirements of the development of market economy. At present, it is difficult to find the legal basis for solving some hot issues in promoting the market-oriented reform of mineral resources in the current laws and regulations. First, there are different understandings of mining rights in theory, mainly in the different understandings of ownership and use rights of mineral resources and their relationship, which makes it very serious to solve the problem of "clear property rights" in practice; Second, the ownership of mining rights formed by state-funded exploration is controversial. Guo Ban Fa [2003] No.76 stipulates this, but the dispute has not been resolved. Third, there are no specific legal provisions on the market access and exit mechanism and the "bidding, auctioning and hanging" of exploration rights, and there are great differences between the competent authorities and different stakeholders in their understanding and practice; Fourth, there is no clear legal provision on the position and role of the competent department of mineral resources in the market of exploration and mining rights; Fifth, the legal provisions on the protection of the rights and interests of prospecting right holders are not clear.
(3) The reform of market players lags behind.
Judging from the actual situation of mineral exploration in China, the former state-owned geological prospecting units and state-owned mining enterprises constitute two important subjects in China's mineral exploration market, and there is a "double track" operation in both exploration and mining fields, forming a two-way institutional obstacle to exploration and mining. At present, the basic framework of the institution's geological prospecting system of state-owned geological prospecting units has not changed, and it is still the shell of the institution, retaining the base of geological prospecting fees, and mineral exploration has not been operated as an industry. Exploration investment is still managed by funds, and the fund verification system is implemented, and the input and output in monetary form are not compared. The output of mineral exploration is only physical statistics (the discovery of mineral occurrences and physical workload), but there is no value statistics. The financial investment and institutional mechanism of prospecting are still emphasized, so it is difficult to improve the prospecting effect and find minerals that meet the market demand with reasonable mechanisms. Geological prospecting units also undertake public geological work such as geological survey, which is mixed with commercial geological work. Due to the limitation of investment capacity, geological prospecting units have registered a large number of exploration blocks, but the investment is very small, resulting in the situation that social funds want to invest but have no land. Objectively hindered the development of commercial mineral exploration market. Due to specific reasons such as understanding, the mixed operation pattern of public welfare and commercial mineral exploration still exists, which is not conducive to the formation of a fair and just market order of commercial mineral exploration.
On the other hand, many state-owned mining enterprises do not regard mineral exploration as an indispensable production process for their sustainable production, do not consider solving the problem of reserve resources themselves, and do not take finding the follow-up resources of enterprises as their responsibility. They still hope that the government can solve the problem, and the relevant government departments can always support it. A provincial coal group company, with a daily profit of 6,543,800 yuan under the condition of high coal price, is still unwilling to invest in coal exploration, so that the Provincial Bureau of Coalfield Geology has to work in other provinces. The sales revenue of Dexing Copper Mine in Jiangxi Province in 2003 was 654.38+0.05 billion yuan. Six mines have five reserve resources, but only 2.6-2.8 million yuan can be used for production exploration every year, not to mention the investment in risk exploration. They believe that the reserve resources of state-owned old mines are insufficient and the state should consider them. This traditional habit of relying on the state to provide mineral land is very unfavorable to the development of commercial mineral exploration.
In recent years, private mining enterprises have made great progress and become one of the main players in the market, but there are few enterprises with large scale, advanced technology and standardized operation. Most of them are small enterprises, and the negative impact brought by irregular operation is even greater.
In addition, mineral exploration lags behind in opening to the outside world, making it difficult to form a new market subject, which is not conducive to the formation of a dynamic exploration market, nor to the formation of a "competitive reversal mechanism" for the reform of state-owned exploration and development subjects.
(D) Lack of a good investment environment and poor exploration investment and financing.
The overall investment environment of China's mining industry is not ideal because of the low degree of protection of mining rights, the confusion of taxes and fees, the disharmony between central and local policies, the disharmony between mining activities and land use, and local protectionism.
In the protection of mining rights and interests, the legal status of mining rights is not clear, and the status of property rights is difficult to implement. Mining right conflicts with neighboring right and lacks protection. For example, the stipulation that exploration right takes precedence over mining right is questioned in practice. The prospecting right holder cannot guarantee to obtain the mining right, and the expectation of exploration income is not clear. As for the "priority", some local governments interpret it as the priority with the "price", that is, after successful exploration, the competent government departments will auction, and the highest bidder will have priority, which increases investors' concerns.
The related policies of mining right management are lack of clear explanation, and there is a chaotic phenomenon of "one policy and one theory". In practice, the ownership of mining rights as property rights is unclear, and some extend the ownership of mineral resources to the object of mining rights, so the state ownership becomes everyone's, and local governments can intervene, so can local people. In the face of all kinds of interference, the local land and resources management departments and judicial organs can do nothing. A copper mine in Jiangxi reported: "Risk exploration is too difficult. Once something is found, the local villagers will attack it in droves. You turned to the government, but he confidently said: resources belong to the country, so I represent the country. " According to the Land and Resources Bureau of a county in Fujian, in some areas, mining rights approved by the government are useless, and township governments encroach on mining rights to attract investment. Some exploration rights holders reported that during the annual inspection of exploration rights, local governments spread geological information for local interests, allowing local enterprises to exploit and hindering exploration rights holders' development. Some private mining companies also report that they dare not seek exploration areas on a large scale, because as long as you find them, local governments and local villagers will enter mining.
(5) The market system is imperfect and the market operation is not standardized.
It is characterized by underdeveloped market, imperfect system and lack of tangible market and market rules; Mining right management is not standardized; Market players are not in place; The intermediary service system has not yet formed. Commercial mineral exploration lacks a standardized and orderly market operation environment. The underdeveloped mining rights market is mainly manifested in the following aspects: the primary market is active and the secondary market is underdeveloped. Because the government determines, approves and manages mining rights through administrative power, especially by using resource compensation fees and transferring mining rights through bidding, auction and auction, it has essentially formed market manipulation and monopoly. Among them, the "re-transfer" of mining rights funded by the government is theoretically not a primary market, but a secondary market. Excessive government intervention in the secondary market will inevitably affect the normal development of the mining rights market. In some provinces, the primary market has almost completely replaced the secondary market, which seriously restricts the role of the market and is not conducive to its healthy development.
The lack of exploration capital market, an important factor market in mineral exploration market, is also an important manifestation of the underdeveloped exploration market at present. The mineral exploration company with diversified property rights established by Yunnan Geological Exploration Bureau is ready to go public, but it has been operating for many years and has never been successful. The reason is that the risk of mineral exploration is high, the evaluation of mining rights and capitalization of exploration investment are difficult to be widely recognized by the society, there are many obstacles in policy and system, and it is difficult to raise funds. This lack of exploration capital market is the deep-seated reason for the insufficient investment in risk survey and evaluation in China.
The intermediary service around the normal operation of mining rights market is not perfect, the qualification management of intermediary institutions is not strict, and there is a lack of industry self-discipline; The evaluation method is unreasonable; In particular, the evaluation itself is interfered by many parties, which is arbitrary and lacks impartiality. Other consulting services are basically blank. In addition, the public welfare geological information is not fully disclosed, and there is a lack of necessary information communication between mining rights holders and mining capital investors, which seriously affects the full and comprehensive play of the market. It is also a prominent problem that China's intermediary institutions are not independent enough, lack of legal constraints and integrity, and aim at maximizing interests.
(six) the administrative examination and approval is not standardized, regardless of government.
The current mining management can not meet the needs of the development of commercial mineral exploration market, the administrative examination and approval is not standardized, and there is local protectionism; The phenomenon that local governments control resources, allocate resources and pursue rights and interests is serious; Government's participation in operation makes capital investment and non-capital investment coexist, which has a great negative impact on market regulation and social investment. At present, the government generally controls mining rights, especially primary exploration rights. Specific performance in the following aspects.
1. Increase the administrative license at will.
Explore the registration of multi-level exams and set obstacles at different levels. The current exploration registration management system stipulates that exploration rights are examined and approved at two levels. When the prospecting authority approves and grants the prospecting right, it shall check it by the competent department of geology and mineral resources at the next lower level before the database of exploration and mining approval is networked to avoid overlapping of mining rights. However, in the actual implementation process, there have been layers of preliminary examinations, and in some places, there have been cases where township preliminary examinations are needed. This not only imposes a heavy burden on applicants for exploration rights, but more importantly, under the influence of local protection interests, the local competent department of geology and mineral resources has transferred some exploration areas with large exploration rights to local mining enterprises for exploration rights in the name of verification under various excuses.
2. The bidding, auction and listing of mining rights are not standardized.
Because of the unclear understanding of the rights and economic relations of mining rights, many problems have appeared in actual operation. Regarding the issue of "bidding, auction and hanging" of mining rights, simply equating "bidding, auction and hanging" with the market allocation model objectively improves the entry threshold of exploration rights and is not conducive to social funds entering risk exploration. It does not conform to the international general principle of "first application, first acquisition" in obtaining exploration rights. Some departments in charge of mineral resources have designated areas with favorable metallogenic conditions in this area, and as long as someone applies for exploration rights in this area, they will implement bidding, auction and hanging; Even if someone doesn't look for ore in the area, as long as someone applies for prospecting, they will find someone to sort out the information and evaluate it at the application place and implement "bidding, shooting and hanging". Seriously, in some places, as long as someone applies for registration, the government will implement "recruiting, shooting and hanging". Even mining rights that are not directly controlled by the government at the same level should be listed by bidding, auction and listing. For example, some provinces also require "bidding, auction and hanging" for the mining rights of foreign cooperation of geological prospecting units, which obviously infringes on the property rights of legal persons and interferes with the normal production and operation activities of enterprises and units. This practice is extremely unfavorable to the development of commercial mineral exploration. Other geological prospecting units have to "recruit, auction and hang" to transfer exploration rights, and they have to collect fees from them, which is considered to be a high income for standardizing geological prospecting units. This obviously violates the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Registration of Mineral Resources Exploration Blocks and the Measures for the Administration of Bidding, Auction and Listing of Exploration and Mining Rights, which improves the entry threshold for exploration and seriously affects the entry of social funds into mineral exploration.
3. The government directly manages mining rights.
Some local governments use financial funds to establish projects, directly invest in exploration blocks, and contract out exploration technical services to geological prospecting units. The government has mining rights, which obviously violates the principle of separating government from enterprise. Some local government departments regard the transfer of exploration rights as a way to increase income. They made their own geological prospecting projects with resource compensation fees, directly engaged in commercial mineral exploration, and entrusted exploration technology and services to geological prospecting units. Once the mining right is formed, the government will sell the mining right, and the proceeds will either supplement the local financial shortage or be used for rolling development, and then the project will be explored. Once any fund enters commercial mineral exploration, it constitutes production and business activities, and it is necessary to abide by the rules of the game in this respect. However, some governments have not gone through the formalities in this regard, and they are both referees and athletes, which has seriously affected the fairness and justice of the market. The government directly participates in the operation, aiming at maximizing rights and interests, and social capital investment has produced crowding-out effect. At the same time, the pre-evaluation of mineral survey with relatively high risk did not play the role of picking up the missing, and did not play the role of financial funds in guiding and standardizing social funds.
(VII) Technology and talent constraints
On the one hand, the problems of geological science and technology, education and talents are outstanding, the independent innovation ability of geological theory and science and technology is low, the geological education is weak, the treatment of field geological work is low, the talent structure is unreasonable, and a new talent gap appears. On the other hand, the natural conditions of China's mineral resources are poor. With the gradual tilt of the prospecting field to the west, periphery and deep, it is more difficult to find minerals, and the exploration technology and equipment of solid minerals are backward, so the progress of exploration and prospecting technology can not meet the requirements. In terms of talent team, influenced by the depression of global geological exploration and the reform and development of state-owned geological prospecting units since the 1990s, the brain drain of geological talents is serious, and young and middle-aged exploration and prospecting backbone forces have formed faults. The shortage of technology and talents also restricts the development of mineral exploration in China. According to the survey, geological prospecting units generally reflect that "the technical personnel of mineral exploration are insufficient to meet the needs of work". According to relevant calculations, there are currently only 5 employees, 2 technicians and 0.3 senior technicians in each exploration project. The reasons for the talent problem are: first, the state-owned geological prospecting units and state-owned mining enterprises lack the incentive mechanism for technical talents; Second, the structure of geological education is biased and unreasonable, and the training is out of touch with the demand; Third, the lack of industry guidance, technical exchanges and continuing education; Fourth, the combination of "production, learning and research" is not enough.