Abstract

The Mineral Resources Law under revision should be reformed to rebuild the legal order of mining rights in accordance with the Property Law. The revised Mineral Resources Law shall create a harmonious relation between the state ownership of natural resources and mining rights. Legislators should adopt the system of fee-based use and the "purchase for once paid in installments" mode, so that the creation of mining rights will conform to state expectations and realize the rights and interests of the state. At the same time, it is beneficial to resolve the mining right conflicts after "the priority over sapping galleries" and "the single mining rights system" are introduced. Moreover, basic farmland protection and urban and rural planning for construction should become factors in determing whether to prioritize mining rights when coordinating mining rights and land rights.

Who controls resources dominates the world. As the grain and blood for the development of industry, mineral resources impact the national economy and society increasingly with each passing day. But at the legal level, the Mineral Resource Law issued in 1986 and revised in 1996, which is the basic regulation for resource allocation and utilization, fails to sufficiently correlate with the Property Law issued in 2007. As a result, it is prejudicial to enhance the readjustment and protection of the exploitation of resources. The novel Mineral Resources Law is under revision. The revised Mineral Resources Law shall defer to the Property Law and emphasize the settlement of conflicts between mining rights and state ownership of natural resources, mining rights and land rights, and between different mining rights so as to build a favorable legal order.