China Announces Mineral Resources Law Implementation Regulations to Strengthen Strategic Control

(CNA, Shanghai, May 21, by reporter Liao Wen-chi) China has announced the "Implementation Regulations for the Mineral Resources Law" to strengthen control over mineral resources, with particularly severe penalties for related illegal activities involving strategic mineral resources. Experts point out that the regulations mark a new stage in the institutional protection of China's mineral resource security. According to a Xinhua News Agency report, Chinese Premier Li Qiang signed a State Council decree to promulgate the "Implementation Regulations for the Mineral Resources Law," which will take effect on June 15. The regulations, consisting of 8 chapters and 79 articles, primarily cover five major aspects: first, further improving the mining rights system; second, detailing the systems for mineral resource exploration and extraction; third, detailing the systems for ecological restoration in mining areas; fourth, further improving the mineral resource reserve and emergency systems; and fifth, further improving the supervision and management systems. Hong Kong media outlet Wen Wei Po reported that the regulations strengthen full-chain management for strategic mineral resources vital to national security—from exploration, mining, supply, storage, to sales—and establish a mechanism for severe punishment for illegal mining. The regulations stipulate that for specific strategic mineral resources identified by the State Council, protective extraction measures such as planning control, total quantity control, and limiting mining entities will be implemented in accordance with laws, administrative regulations, and relevant state provisions. Strategic mineral resources included in production-area reserves may not be mined or overlaid without the approval of the State Council's competent department for natural resources. "Illegal activities such as unauthorized mining involving strategic mineral resources will be subject to heavier penalties within the statutory range." The regulations also stipulate that foreign investment in the exploration and extraction of mineral resources that affects or may affect national security will undergo a security review in accordance with relevant state provisions. The report quotes Sun Xiaolei, a professor at the School of Economics and Management at Beihang University, who pointed out that the regulations signify a new stage in the institutional protection of China's mineral resource security. She stated that resource security is a matter of national security, especially for strategic key minerals like rare earths and lithium, which have significant strategic value in national defense, energy transition, and national resource security. She pointed out that the core of the regulations is to prioritize resource security, impose strong control over strategic minerals, improve the mineral resource reserve and emergency systems, centralize mining rights, and implement lifelong accountability for ecological damage, further promoting the legalization and standardization of mineral resource security protection. In addition, the regulations also stipulate that carrying out overseas mineral resource development and utilization should safeguard national interests and public interests, comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as the relevant laws of the host country or region, and legally accept the management and supervision of relevant Chinese departments and diplomatic missions abroad. Sun Xiaolei believes that carrying out overseas mineral