Study On Mining Right Payment System

As we all know, China is a country with relatively poor per-capita mineral resources. China's per-capita mineral resources are only 58% of those in the world, ranking a global 53rd. Nevertheless, even these very limited mineral resources are not properly taken care of. Problems such as wasteful exploitation, inefficient utilization, and deteriorated environment are ever outstanding. These problems, to a large extent, are due to the long-time implementation of codes and regulations on mineral resource, which allow exploitation of mineral resources at zero cost or very low cost. In recent years, along with the ever deepening of the socialist market economic reforms, the codes and regulations on mining resource taxation have been updated and improved. However, these updates and improvements have focused a lot on resource taxation and mining resource compensation, but little on the mining right payment system, which was brought up in 1998 and came into effect in 2001. Therefore, it is of great significance and urgency, to draw more attention to the mining right payment system in order to put it in better service of public interest as well as mining industry development.This dissertation traces the origin and development of China's mining right payment system, and compares it with the mineral resource taxation and royalty systems of other mineral-rich countries; Through theoretical analysis as well as practical research, it has come to the viewpoint that the economic intension of mining right payment should be the sum of exploration investment yield and a certain amount of the yield from mineral resource ownership. Based on this understanding, the disadvantages of current policies on imposition of mining right payment are analyzed, and corresponding reformative suggestions are proposed along with practicable measures. The main reformative proposals are:1. All exploration rights should be registered free of charge.2. Whether a mineral resource has been explored by the state or other entities, any applicant for its mining right should afford the mining right payment.3. The priority of mining right registration to the explorer should be nullified; the mining right should always be awarded to whoever offers the highest bid; In case a mineral resource has proved up by a private explorer, a reasonable amount should be cut off from the mining right payment, to remunerate his exploration investment.Furthermore, to determine the compensation for exploration investment, a calculation formula is devised to serve as a technical support to the reformative proposals, and a practical case is given to illustrate its feasibility.