First, the negative impact of insufficient investment in solid mineral exploration.
First of all, the impact on the development of China mining industry will be serious. According to statistics, the output value of China's mining industry in 1999 was 4210/100 million yuan, of which the output value of solid minerals was 247.2 billion yuan. This is the result of many years of mineral exploration, mainly before the 1980s. The exploration achievements after 1990s, especially the mineral exploration achievements in the next 20 to 30 years, will determine the development scale and speed of domestic mining industry in the next 20 to 30 years. Once the mining economy falls sharply, it will cause a series of economic and social problems.
According to 1999 statistics, there are 9.57 million employees in China's solid mineral industry. Once there is a problem with such a huge labor force, it will affect social stability. Moreover, with the reduction of mining output value and employment, it will also affect effective domestic demand, and then affect the sustained and healthy development of China's economy.
In some areas and some minerals, mining is also an important source of fiscal revenue. In Pingguo County, Guangxi, before the discovery and development of aluminum mines, the county's fiscal revenue was only130,000 yuan. After the development of aluminum mines, the county's fiscal revenue has exceeded 300 million yuan in 654.38+0999, of which more than 200 million yuan is the direct fiscal and tax contribution of Pingguo aluminum industry. Examples like this have special political and economic significance for the development of remote areas and ethnic minority areas. Mining development not only has employment effect and financial effect, but also has good infrastructure effect and urbanization effect. More than 300 mining cities in China, such as Daqing, Pingdingshan, Panzhihua, Jinchang and Gejiu, were established because of mines, and urbanization is one of the important development goals of China in the future. If the mining industry can't make its due contribution in this respect, it will also be a loss to China's future economic development.
To sum up, insufficient investment in solid mineral exploration not only affects the mining industry itself, but also can be solved by importing, but a series of social and economic benefits derived from mining industry cannot be bought by importing. In this regard, leaders at all levels and relevant departments should pay enough attention.
Second, the factor analysis of insufficient investment in solid mineral exploration.
1. Demand constraint, that is, the exploration investment with the ability to pay is seriously insufficient: ① Because of the high risk (natural risk) of mineral exploration, especially in the search stage, investors are afraid to solve the problem of "whether there is". In addition, most mineral exploration and development require large investment and long cycle, and most investors are unwilling to enter and banks are unwilling to lend. (2) Under the planned economy system, the exploration funds of China's mines (except oil and natural gas) are paid by the state finance, so they are not included in the cost of mineral products; These funds, together with the benefits, are turned over to the finance with the profits and taxes of the mining enterprises, and the enterprises do not keep them. Moreover, the initial cost of mineral development is low and the profit is high. The later, the lower the profit rate. At present, the state finance no longer undertakes the investment in commercial geological prospecting (which is correct), and enterprises have no accumulation of funds in this area, which leads to the shortage of "broken files". Moreover, due to the influence of the traditional planned economic system concept, many mining enterprises (including geological prospecting units themselves) still do not amortize the consumption of mining rights in the cost of mineral products, which is not conducive to the accumulation of mineral exploration funds. (3) Due to the globalization of mineral resources allocation, the import of many mineral products has increased, which directly leads to the reduction of domestic mineral exploration demand. According to statistics, from 65438 to 0999, the proportion of major mineral products imports to domestic total demand was: oil 22%, iron ore 32%, manganese ore 35%, chromite 80%, copper 46% and potash fertilizer 80%. (4) Geological prospecting units used to be the main body of exploration investment. Because of the huge team and limited base of geological prospecting fees, they weighed the advantages and disadvantages after operating independently according to the market mechanism, and also reduced commercial exploration investment.
2. Supply restrictions. It used to be thought that as long as there are geological conditions and resource prospects, the required mining rights can be provided through exploration, which is also a commonly used analysis method of resource supply and demand situation under planned economy conditions. However, the "supply" of market economy is not so simple, it refers to the quantity of goods that sellers are willing to sell under certain price conditions. The key point here is that the cost of the goods you provide must be lower than "a certain price", and many of our mineral exploration results are too difficult to find, and even if they are found, the cost is too high; Or because the mining conditions are too complicated and the development cost is too high; Or because the natural abundance is not good, the expenditure on beneficiation and metallurgy is too large to form an effective supply. This is a realistic problem faced by many eastern provinces (regions) or some minerals and ore types in China, and it is also a realistic problem faced by many potential resources in China.
3. Environmental constraints: ① With the improvement of people's quality of life, the requirements for living environment have been greatly improved compared with the past. The impact of mineral development on the surrounding environment is mostly negative and must be controlled, which will increase the cost and difficulty and affect the entry of investors. (2) Mining right, as the property right of legal person, has not been effectively protected in many places. Some collect fees in disorder, some seize profits, and some interfere in disorder, making investors unwilling or afraid to enter. ③ Some minerals are monopolized by departments; In some areas, local monopoly makes it difficult for others to enter.
4. The market is underdeveloped. Solid mineral exploration involves four markets:
(1) mineral products market. It is the driving force of mining right market, and its supply and demand situation largely determines the situation of mining right market. The overall situation of mineral products market in China is the increasing demand. In 1999, the industrial output value of mineral products was 421000 billion yuan, and the raw ore output was 4631000 million tons. Under the regulation of the market, the supply is also sufficient, and most mineral products are in the buyer's market. Some (such as tungsten, antimony, tin, rare earth, etc. There is still a total surplus, resulting in a backlog of mineral products and a waste of resources. The supply and demand of mineral products are mainly related to the globalization of resource allocation. According to statistics, from the perspective of 1999, China's export of fossil fuels, lubricating oils and related raw materials was 4.646 billion US dollars, down by10.3% compared with 1998; The import value was US$ 8,965,438+US$ 200 million, an increase of US$ 365,438 +0.6% compared with US$ 65,438 +0.998. The main mineral products exported are coal, zinc, antimony, tungsten, magnesium, rare earth, barite, cement, stone and so on. The main mineral products imported are crude oil, refined oil, iron ore, manganese ore, chromium, copper, aluminum and potassium salt. With China's accession to the WTO, the above situation is still developing. Therefore, from the overall market situation of mineral products, except for oil, natural gas, geothermal, gold and diamonds, most mineral products are in a state of oversupply, which has a great pulling effect on the mining right market.
(2) Mining right market. The mining right market has started. By the end of 1999, 13 exploration right and 2 14 mining right have been approved. In which 1999 rpm 147. During the same period, 6,094 mining licenses were issued for new mines, and only 2.4% of the newly registered mining rights were traded. It can be seen that most mining rights have not been transferred, which may be a basic trend. Because under the market economy system, the combination of exploration and mining accounts for the majority, which is conducive to transferring exploration risks to the development stage and reducing uncertainties in mining production. In addition, we also know that most of the prospecting rights transferred at present are accumulated by local geological prospecting units for many years, and few are formed by geological prospecting units at present and then transferred. In other words, mining rights will rarely become the final product to maintain the survival and development of enterprises in the future. It is difficult for the existing geological prospecting units in China to follow the example of foreign small-scale geological prospecting companies that mainly sell mining rights, because their scale is too large and their burden is too heavy.
(3) tap the capital market. It refers to the transaction of mining funds in the financial market and is an important financing channel for mining funds in western developed countries. But in China, this market has basically not started. Enterprises listed in the name of mining industry do not take mining rights as the main basis to attract investors.
(4) Mineral exploration labor market. It is an exploration technical service that runs through the market in order to obtain mining rights or increase their value. Directly affected by two factors, one is the scale of mining rights transactions; The second is the output scale of mining rights. At present, due to the small scale of these two aspects and the underdeveloped labor market of mineral exploration, multi-channel investment has been formed. According to the information provided by the Institute of Information, in western mining countries, the ratio of public welfare geological work to commercial geological work is 1:9 or 2:8, while in China it is 2:4 (excluding oil and gas), so this market may still have potential.
Three. Countermeasures and suggestions for increasing investment in solid mineral exploration
(A) earnestly grasp the transformation of the two concepts
First of all, we should fully realize that under the socialist market economy system, the main body of mineral resources exploration and development is enterprises, and the main users of mineral products are enterprises, not the government or government-owned institutions. Enterprises are profit-oriented economic organizations, which are regulated by the market. In the exploration and development of mineral resources market, those who are profitable can enter and those who are unprofitable will quit. In the utilization of mineral resources, buy wherever it is cheap, whether at home or abroad. In this regard, we can not rely on subjective consciousness, nor can we use administrative orders. It is on the basic issue of market economy that the concept of planned economy is often used to understand. For example, from the early 1980 s, it was called for "the resource situation is very severe, and the investment in geological prospecting should be increased", but who will invest? How to promote investment? There is no solution. So far, increasing investment is still just a "slogan" and can't solve practical problems. The fundamental reason lies in the failure to take countermeasures against the specific operators of mineral resources supply and demand. Obviously, if investing in exploration and development of mineral resources is not as good as investing in other industries to make money, who will respond to the call and increase investment in geological exploration?
Secondly, the concept of "mineral resources" is fundamentally different under the planned economy system and the market economy system. Now the amount of resources we provide to the country may still be calculated by the industrial indicators determined by the state under the planned economy system. The amount of resources under the market economy system is the amount of resources that can constitute an effective supply. The industrial index parameters of this resource quantity are directly affected by the market price. The same resources, the same period, different mineral products market prices will have different resources. At present, China's economic development needs mineral resources, which is exactly the kind of resources, not the kind reflected in the balance sheet of reserves. This understanding is very important for promoting the exploration and development of mineral resources. It requires us not to simply pursue the increase of reserves, but to focus on the reserves that the market may accept. Because only this kind of reserves can mining enterprises invest in exploration and development. Recently, the General Administration of Coalfield Geology of China has completed a research achievement, namely "Situation Analysis of the Effective Supply Capacity of Coal Resources in China". The effective supply it puts forward refers to the coal resources available for development and utilization in China under the realistic market price conditions. According to their calculations, more than 5 trillion tons of original coal resources and more than 65.438 billion tons of proven reserves are quantified as 206.4 billion tons of effective supply capacity and 65.438+0037 billion tons of net effective supply. It can be seen that resources with different concepts differ greatly in their data. Therefore, it is suggested to re-evaluate China's main mineral resources with the concept of effective supply of resources, and plan the development and utilization of China's mineral resources accordingly; At the micro level, we should respect the profit of enterprises and demonstrate the feasibility of mineral exploration and development.
(2) Strengthening government macro-control.
The socialist market economy is to give full play to the basic role of the market in resource allocation while strengthening the macro-control of the government, rather than relying solely on market regulation. In view of the actual situation of solid mineral exploration, the most effective regulation means is to establish a national "geological exploration fund" to subsidize mineral exploration: ① The reason for subsidizing mineral exploration is that in the whole mineral exploration, the risk in the prospecting stage is the greatest, and social funds are the least willing to enter. Once a breakthrough is made in the census and promising mines and mining areas needed by the market are found, social funds can be effectively mobilized. ② It is called "subsidy" because it mobilizes more social funds from the subsidized subjects to invest in mineral exploration through leverage. In this way, through two levels of mobilization, namely, the census funds to mobilize social exploration funds; Government subsidies to mobilize social census funds can start investment in solid mineral exploration with a small amount of government subsidies. (3) Government subsidies should not independently undertake projects, but should make up for the projects of the subsidized subjects, each with a certain proportion of funds, and entrust the subsidized subjects (enterprises) to conduct commercial operations. After successful prospecting, government subsidies will be converted into state-owned funds; If the prospecting fails, it will be written off, "* * * takes risks and does not seek benefits". However, the projects established by the sponsors must obey the requirements of the government's macro-control. To this end, the government can announce in advance the areas and minerals that enjoy subsidies and guide enterprises to set up projects. It must be pointed out that independent projects and commercial mineral exploration with government financial funds or resource compensation fees will not achieve good results. Because its mechanism is not good, that is, finding a mine is a great contribution, and not finding a mine is a natural risk, so it is written off without pressure. At the same time, this practice also constitutes unfair competition with the exploration funded by enterprises.
(three) to promote the deepening reform and asset restructuring of solid mineral exploration and development enterprises.
In the final analysis, the development of China's solid mineral industry must have a number of large-scale mining enterprises across provinces (regions) or even transnational, but China's existing mining enterprises and geological prospecting units do not have this condition, so we must deepen reform and reorganize. (1) Give priority to the development of existing large and medium-sized mining enterprises, establish a modern enterprise system in a planned and organized way, develop into groups, attract foreign investment through equity linkage, and transform small mines into business units. (2) Focus on attracting large enterprise groups at home and abroad to enter the mining industry, and combine the mining industry with other industries to form diversified operations, such as Shandong Luneng. (3) Transform the existing geological prospecting units and set up mineral exploration and development enterprises with the provincial bureau as the unit; Most of them should be transformed into exploration companies that mainly provide exploration services and provide various services; A few units with strong technology and good geological conditions can set up professional prospecting companies with capable personnel. ④ To reform the financial system of mining enterprises, exploration investment must be capitalized, and the value of mining rights must be regarded as an important property of enterprises. All mining enterprises, that is, the mining rights now in operation, should be evaluated and accounted for every year; The exploration expenses of large mining companies can be written off before tax as period expenses.
In order to promote the development of China's solid mining enterprises and cooperate with the implementation of the government's mineral resources planning, the competent department of land and resources may, jointly with the Planning Commission and the Economic and Trade Commission, formulate the development plan and strategy of China's solid mineral industry. In the planning, we can choose large-scale mining enterprises with sufficient reserve resources and promising market prospects, as well as geological prospecting bureaus with rich mineral resources and potential for large-scale exploration and development of mineral resources to give key support. For example: injecting state-owned capital; Assist in listing and increase funds through financing; Dredge bank loans, etc. , and rapidly expand the scale.
(4) Give full play to the fundamental role of the market in resource allocation.
(1) Eliminate any form of monopoly, including industrial monopoly and local protective monopoly, and let the market allocate commercial geological exploration.
(2) To strengthen the standardization of mining rights market, we can consider establishing a unified national mining rights exchange and establishing branches in several areas and networking.
(3) Contact with finance and financial departments to start China mining capital market as soon as possible. You can organize relevant experts to go abroad for special research, put forward plans to the state, and promote the start.
(4) In order to cooperate with the trading of mining rights and the start of mining capital market, an authoritative evaluation institution of mineral exploration results should be established. Through this authoritative evaluation, investors' confidence in mineral exploration investment will be enhanced.
In giving full play to the market role, it must be emphasized that the evaluation of exploration rights should be flexible and diverse, especially for low-level general survey mines and mining areas, the price evaluated by formal methods is difficult to be accepted by investors, while cooperative exploration is easy to clinch a deal. At present, on the one hand, many geological prospecting units occupy a large number of mines and explore mining areas, but they don't have enough capital investment, so they have to maintain them at the lowest input cost stipulated by the state. As a result, not every point was lost, but every point could not be taken down; To transfer, no one is willing to pay their expected price. Just drag it there. On the other hand, some investors, especially those old mines with insufficient resources, have to make a general survey for prospecting, but they are unable to choose the ideal target area. They said that all the promising areas were registered by geological prospecting units, but they felt that buying them was too risky and not worth spending so much money. And dragged it there. In view of the above situation, if we can take risks in stages through cooperative exploration, it is possible to untie the "buttons" between the two sides. The specific measures are as follows: Party A (the original mining right holder) provides a piece of mining right land to Party B (the mining right transferee) for further exploration; If Party B passes the evaluation, both parties can negotiate on the following two points: ① How much is Party B prepared to pay for the subsequent exploration? (2) After successful exploration, the investment ratio (equity ratio) that both parties should occupy from mine construction; If the exploration fails, both parties shall bear their own investment risks. If we reach an agreement on the above two points, the exploration project can begin. This method is simple, beneficial to both sides and can promote the circulation of exploration rights. Especially for geological prospecting units, there are many benefits: ① prospecting rights can be revitalized without incremental investment; (2) Successful exploration right can provide certain equity for geological prospecting units to run mines; (3) If Party B has no exploration and construction capacity, it can also contract labor services to obtain operating income. Therefore, geological prospecting units with exploration rights should vigorously seek partners for "cooperative exploration".
(five) to strengthen the public geological survey, reduce the risk of commercial exploration.
(1) The public geological survey should focus on the comprehensive collection and secondary development of existing geological data, rather than more new projects.
(2) The strategic evaluation of mineral resources should be organically coordinated with large domestic mining companies and geological prospecting units, and commercial geological prospecting forces should be used as much as possible to complete this task. This can not only give full play to the effectiveness of large-scale investigation funds, but also avoid disputes with commercial geological prospecting units on ore sites and engage in unequal competition.
(3) The levels of public welfare geological survey should be diversified, and each province should have its own public welfare geological work, and on this basis, formulate its own mineral resources planning to guide the commercial prospecting in this region.
200 1 September