Minister Tian Fengshan announced that the overhaul must be finished before the end of this year to fulfill the goal of suppressing mines operating without permits, beyond authorization, or illegally transferring their operation rights.

Tian said that mines that are found conducting random exploration of resources will have their licenses suspended and be given a grace period to make a reclaim. Those who fail to meet the state requirement of operation standard by June next year will have their operation licenses written off.

The meeting was held in response to a series of serious production security problems that have occurred in mining this year, such as the landslide in a quarry in Leping, east China's Jiangxi Province and the tin mine flooding accident in Nandan, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

During the overhaul, the ministry will make special investigations of key problem areas and the management of important mines such as coal, petroleum, sea sand, tungsten and rare earth.

Meanwhile, the ministry will call back mining permits approved by township administrations and cancel the operation rights of all small pits in mines.

Wide-spread illegal mining has been ascribed as the root of the fatal accidents. In the Leping accident site, there were 43 mining companies operating when the landslide happened. However, 40 of them were found to be doing business without permits. In the Nandan case, miners with only exploration licenses were randomly extracting mineral resources.

Tian urged land and resources officials at various levels to search for any possible hidden dangers during this mining industry overhaul.

He said that illegal mining not only causes damage and wastes mineral resources, but can also cause landslides, mudflows, and ground subsidence, destroys farmland and underground water systems and pollutes ground water.

Tian added that the mining accidents threatening people lives and regional economic security have become social hotspots. This kind of overhaul supervision will continue to be a priority of the ministry's task to maintain orderly mining production.

(Xinhua News Agency 09/12/2001)