Research On The Trading Methods Of Mineral Rights In Chinese Law

As a sort of property rights, the value of mineral rights can only be achieved duringthe process of transaction. However, the transaction of mineral rights can not be deviatedfrom the mineral right market. So the transaction activities of mineral rights could beoperated regularly only in mineral rights market. In recent years, many different laws andregulations have been published to regulate the mineral rights trading activities and market.A significant case in point is the implemented of Mining Rights Trading Rules in1stMarch,2012, which is the first document promulgated by the Ministry of Land and Resources toregulate the activities of mineral rights transfer. However this Rules failed to enumerateand conclude the specific trading methods, which made the different articles related tomineral rights transaction still be remained in different laws and regulations, and there alsosome vagueness existed in linking up those different articles. Thus, this article tries toresearch the trading methods of mineral rights roundly and systematically.In the first place, this article analyzes the tradable nature of mineral rights. Afterintroduced the concept of transaction both in law and economics, this article concludes themeaning of transaction in this context, that is, the process of trading properties amongindependent and equal market individuals. Then, the characteristics of mineral resourcerender the transaction of mineral rights fully satisfied the prerequisite conditions oftransaction in this context.Secondly, this article discusses the trading methods of mineral rights in the primarymarket. Important to note, the transfer methods in primary market includes marketcompetition, grant by agreement and grant by application. Simply judging from theliterally meaning, it seems that the trading methods and transfer methods in primarymarket are alike. While after deeply analyzing the characteristics of transaction andtransfer, I deem that only the market competition in transfer methods can be considered to be trading methods. Moreover, there only exist rough rules about the priority for theexploring licensee to obtain mineral rights but lacking of specific articles, so this articleemphasizes the priority for the exploring licensee.Then, this article analyzes the trading methods of mineral rights in the secondarymarket. The transfer methods in secondary market are the main part of trading methods. Atthe meantime of concluding the nine specific trading methods in different laws andregulations, this articles also introduces the special types existed in practice contactand share transfer. After that, this article emphasizes three important methods to analyze:the mortgage of mineral rights which is permitted by law; the contract of mineral rightswhich is banned by law; the share transfer which is not regulated by law.Ultimately, this article tries to make some suggestions for the transaction methods ofmineral rights. From the micro perspective, the mineral resource law should enumerateand conclude the trading methods of mineral rights uniformly, which can finish the chaosof different articles related to mineral rights transaction still remain in different laws andregulations. From the specific perspective, this article makes some valuable suggestionsfor those remarkable problems in both primary market and secondary market, likespecifically regulating the priority for the exploring licensee, modifying the mortgage ofmineral rights, admitting the validity of mineral rights contracting and strengthening theadministration for mineral companies’share transfer.