By the end of 2007, a dynamic reserve supervision system will be established in mines throughout the country, the Ministry of Land and Resources unveiled on Friday.

The move is of great significance to the country's effort to build a "resource saving society" and prod domestic mining enterprises to cherish and make logical use of natural resources, said Guan Fengjun, director of the reserve management department of the ministry.

By the end of 2007, all mining enterprises in the country will have to form a mechanism to finish their annual reserve reports, which include reserve-related information such as the conservative and accumulative reserve estimation, the volume of reserves which were either exploited or lost in a year, any quality change in ores and the planned exploitation volume for the next year.

The report will then be submitted to resources management departments before the end of January of the next year.

Twenty-four provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities already use this system, Guan said.

"The dynamic supervision system can help resource management departments at various level ascertain their own reserves, which is a problem that has haunted mines in the country for years," said Guan.

Mining enterprises that do not submit the annual report will not be allowed to operate the next year.

Mining enterprises can pick a local geology survey organization to conduct the survey of their annual reserves while their management department will ask the survey organizations to inspect each other or organize an expert team to make random checks. 
The ministry will be in charge of the supervision of oil and natural gas in the future. Supervision of radioactive minerals will be entrusted to China National Nuclear Corporation.

Provincial-level land and resources bureaus will be responsible for supervision of other minerals.

In order to meet the increasing demand and possible supply shortages in the future, China will form its own strategic reserve of important minerals, such as uranium, aluminium and copper, the International Finance News quoted sources with the Ministry of Land and Resources as saying.

(China Daily May 15, 2006)