Strengthen mineral resource management and promote safe production in mines

Ensuring safe production is an inevitable requirement for implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development and building a harmonious society. Mine safety is the top priority of safety production work. Our city is a city rich in mineral resources, and the task of mine safety supervision is very heavy. In recent years, with the continuous efforts to rectify the mining industry, we have established and improved a long-term prevention mechanism for mine safety, and strived to build a mine safety supervision and guarantee system, which has achieved certain results. This article focuses on analyzing how to start from the root causes that affect mine safety production, integrate mineral resources, take a multi-pronged approach, eliminate the root causes, and strengthen mine safety management.

1. Resource overview and development and utilization status

Zhumadian is a region rich in mineral resources. The western mountainous area has a complete range of energy, metal and non-metal minerals, especially non-metal minerals. They are numerous, widely distributed, have large reserves and are easy to mine; the eastern plain mainly contains bricks, clay, river sand and other mineral resources. At present, 53 types of minerals have been discovered in the city, and more than 20 types of reserves have been proven.

During the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" period, our city's economy has developed rapidly. Especially in recent years, as a demonstration zone for east-west cooperation among township and village enterprises in my country, our city's mining industry has taken advantage of the momentum of east-west cooperation and the shortage of domestic and foreign resources. The development and utilization of resources has changed from the past of small scale, scattered distribution and extensive management to gradually forming a new pattern of multi-type, large-scale and high-efficiency mining and processing. In 2000, there were 603 mining enterprises in our city, with a mining and processing output value of 1.9 billion. In 2005, there were 310 mining enterprises in our city, with a mining and processing output value of 2.7 billion. With the deepening of mining order management and rectification, in the past few years, our city has banned a number of mining enterprises that do not meet the certification requirements, mine illegally and illegally, destroy and waste resources, and fail to meet safety production standards, and have strengthened resource integration through , the Biyang Iron Mining District was consolidated from 34 small iron mines into 4; Queshan County solved the unreasonable layout of 146 mines through resource integration, from the original 308 to the current 162, and the level of mineral resource development and utilization further improve. However, the development order of mineral resources in some places has been inconsistent. Unlicensed mining, cross-border mining, mining instead of exploration, and random mining and other illegal activities have been repeatedly prohibited. Reserve resources for important minerals are insufficient, mine layout is unreasonable, and operations are extensive and waste of resources. Some outstanding problems such as environmental damage, frequent production safety accidents, etc. have not yet been fundamentally resolved.

2. Deep-seated problems

1. Mining management methods lag behind

Illegal mining in our city has been repeatedly banned, mainly due to the thinking mode of the planned economic system. It is under passive management and the corresponding countermeasures to eradicate illegal mining have not kept up. In recent years, although governments at all levels and the land and resources departments have adopted a high-pressure posture, due to some flaws in mining management, it is difficult to get out of the vicious cycle of rectification-rebound-rerectification-rebound again. If the two-track system of mining rights coexists for a day, there will be a problem of free acquirers exploiting the rich and abandoning the poor, while paid acquirers will try their best to cross the border. A prominent problem currently is that the management of exploration rights in mining administration is weak, and some individual and private business owners engage in illegal mining activities under the guise of exploration, using exploration as a substitute for mining. Some exploration rights holders illegally exploit mineral resources with exploration licenses. Regulations stipulate that exploration licenses must be obtained by registration, and the entry threshold is low. However, this provision that encourages risky exploration has been exploited by some opportunists. After entering the exploration field from a low threshold, they carry out illegal mining with exploration licenses. Facing illegal mining under the new situation, the law enforcement methods that have been implemented for many years are difficult to keep up with the times. Land and resources law enforcement and supervision personnel are faced with jurisdictions with many points, long territories, and wide areas. They have insufficient manpower, limited funds, and transportation problems. There is a shortage of tools and backward technical means, which inevitably leads to blank spots in the development and management of mineral resources.

2. The legal system is not perfect

There is a phenomenon in various parts of our country. If someone steals something from others, he will be punished by law as long as he is caught. And if someone illegally mines mineral resources such as sand, stone, coal, etc., and is found to be fined, few people will be sentenced unless the scale is huge, the harm is extremely harmful, and an accident occurs. The reason is that our country's legislative work lags behind. The "Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China", like other professional laws, has been criticized as a "soft law". The imperfect legal system has led to ineffective crackdowns and given opportunities to criminals. The city (county) grassroots level does not have the right to identify illegal amounts, making it difficult to characterize them. According to regulations, illegal mining of coal mines with a value of more than 50,000 yuan can be finalized, and only qualified departments in provinces and autonomous regions can evaluate it.

Due to limited funds, the local government cannot often invite them to come for assessment. Even if the assessment results are obtained, the illegal mine owners have already fled. The "Administrative Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China" only gives the land and resources management department the power to register and preserve illegal mining tools and mineral products. It is conceivable how much deterrence the land and resources management department without the power of confiscation can have in the face of rampant, cunning, and even violent criminals who resist the law?

3. The source is not controlled, and a joint force has not yet been formed< /p>

Illegal mining is inseparable from two channels: one is pyrotechnics supplies; the other is the sale of mineral products. At present, there is insufficient supervision over the supply and use of explosives and detonators. Some pyrotechnics supplies for unlicensed mines come from licensed mines, while others come from illegal channels. Because there are many sources of information, the relevant authorities are negligent in inspection and supervision, giving criminals an opportunity to take advantage of it. At the same time, in practice, transportation clearance is not strictly controlled, transportation inspections are lax, and transportation permits are illegally resold. In particular, power plants, coking plants, smelting plants, and construction units that wait for rice to be cooked are all purchased, resulting in The unimpeded flow of unlicensed mineral products. The crackdown on illegal mining involves many departments such as land and resources, coal, safety supervision, industry and commerce, etc. There is often a phenomenon of buck-passing in the work, each playing its own tune, lack of close cooperation, and no joint law enforcement force.

4. The legal publicity work is not in place

Due to the long-term neglect of the publicity of mineral resources laws and regulations, many people do not know how to dig sand, collect soil, break stones, pan for gold, and mine coal. , Prospecting must apply for a mining license and an exploration license in accordance with the law. It is inevitable that people will mistakenly think that the underground resources belong to them. This makes people mine illegally, consciously or unconsciously. The reason is that legal publicity and education have not kept up. In reality, many local grassroots cadres, residents in mining areas, and local villagers have weak legal awareness of mineral resources. Many township cadres and villagers mistakenly believe that land is collectively owned, and mining mineral resources within the scope of collective land is a matter of course.

3. Countermeasures

1. Reducing the total number of mines is a fundamental solution

In the 1980s, influenced by the idea of ??"water flows quickly when it is there", we Small iron mines and small stone factories in the city swarmed in, with the peak number reaching more than 2,000. These mining enterprises are small in scale and have a scattered layout, which poses a considerable threat to production safety: First, due to the small scale of the mines and low investment in safety, there are inherent deficiencies in safety production conditions; second, due to the disordered layout of the mines and Entering the residual mining period, there are varying degrees of over-exploitation and resource grabbing, which not only results in a waste of mineral resources, but also lays the foundation for safe production. To solve this problem, the fundamental strategy is to "reduce weight and slim down" and reduce the "danger sources" of mine safety accidents. In recent years, our city has adopted "shutdown, suspension, withdrawal, and merger" measures for mining enterprises based on reality, vigorously shut down wells and cut production, and promoted large-scale mining operations. "Close" means to intensify the efforts to shut down wells, and mines that do not meet safety production conditions, have incomplete licenses, and cross-layer and cross-border mining will be closed and banned. "Stop" means to stop immediately upon expiration. Mines whose mining rights have expired will not be extended and will be forced to cease operations. “Retirement” means exiting with compensation. For mines whose mining rights have not expired but are no longer in operation, they are encouraged to exit early and the government will provide certain compensation. "Integration" means promoting the integration of mines. On the basis of "closing, suspending, and withdrawing", we will make unified planning for the areas where mines are relatively concentrated, and promote them to the market on a regional basis, and invite public bidding to attract those with financial strength and social responsibility. The mine is run exclusively by people. After several years of hard work, the number of mining enterprises in our city has been reduced from more than 2,000 to 339. Practice has proven that this is not only conducive to improving resource extraction rates, but also conducive to safe production and supervision.

2. Suppressing huge profits in the mining industry is a move to "clean up the source"

In recent years, due to the skyrocketing prices of mineral products, miners have flocked to run mines, especially some mine owners who are driven by high profits. Under the current situation, we only focus on production without paying attention to safety, and even take desperate risks, seriously exceeding production capacity and violating laws and regulations, resulting in a large number of safety hazards. Huge profits are the direct "incentive" that leads to chaos in the mining industry and are also the main cause of safety hazards. Therefore, we must start by curbing huge mining profits, increasing the cost of running a mine, and raising the threshold for running a mine. The first is to increase the promotion of paid mining in the mining industry. At present, in many places in our country, although market operations are implemented for newly developed mine resources, the original mines are transferred through agreements. This "dual-track system" must be eliminated as soon as possible. Regardless of newly opened mines or existing mines, all must be promoted to market operations and paid mining must be implemented. The second is to increase taxation on mining.

In recent years, mining enterprises are mostly run by individuals. In order to avoid taxes, their output and operating income are not recorded at all or are recorded in false accounts, making it difficult to collect taxes such as value-added tax, resource tax, and personal income tax in full. In this regard, we must adhere to a multi-pronged approach and improve collection methods and recording methods. At present, our city has established a joint mining tax management team composed of taxation, electric power, public security and other relevant units. It regularly calculates the output of mines based on their electricity consumption and pyrotechnics consumption, which serves as the basis for tax payable and improves the tax collection rate. The scientific nature of tax avoids tax evasion to a certain extent. At the same time, explore the establishment of around-the-clock monitoring of mine production to improve the accuracy of mine output measurement and ensure that all tax receivables are collected. The third is to increase compensation for mine safety accidents. For mining accidents, the high limit of death compensation regulations in Henan Province is strictly followed, and heavy fines and heavy penalties are imposed, making the mine owners truly feel that they cannot afford to die and forcing them to strengthen their safety awareness. The fourth is to increase the intensity of collecting and collecting the “two golds” from mines. Mandatory investment in safe production. The fifth is to increase the expansion of mining enterprises’ participation in work-related injury insurance. Make it a mandatory requirement for mining enterprises to participate in work-related injury insurance, and promote it in phases and in batches. In particular, underground workers with low safety factors such as mining workers, blasters, and transport workers should be the focus of insurance, so as to effectively protect the interests of employees in mining enterprises. .

3. Strengthening professional supervision is an inherent need

The particularity and high risk of mining production objectively determine the professionalism of its production operations and safety supervision. However, currently mining employees and The supervisory team is far from adapting to this requirement. As far as the employees are concerned, the overall quality is low, the managers do not understand the procedures, and the miners have not received professional safety training, resulting in reckless and illegal operations during operations. From the perspective of the supervision team, the lack of professional knowledge and skills directly affects the effectiveness and level of supervision of mine safety production. Therefore, in recent years, our city has focused on strengthening the professional supervision of mine safety while paying close attention to the safety training of mine managers, special operations personnel, and miners in mining enterprises. First, an expert consultation system was established to conduct regular rounds to inspect potential safety hazards in mining enterprises, propose rectification measures, and implement rectifications within a time limit, effectively improving the political level of safety hazards in mining enterprises. The second is to implement the safety mine manager appointment system and openly recruit capable and experienced professional mine managers from the public. They will be assigned to the iron mine as safety mine managers and safety directors respectively. They will be specifically responsible for the daily safety production management of the iron mine and strictly implement follow-up. Downhole system, effectively strengthen the dynamic management and monitoring of iron ore production sites, and eliminate potential accident risks in a timely manner. These designated personnel are under unified management by the industry authorities, with performance and reward linked to a comprehensive grasp of mining resources. They regularly carry out flood detection and roof collapse prevention and control for the mines according to the mining progress, and improve the level of accident prevention. Second, a professional emergency rescue team is established to provide assistance from the corresponding departments. Deploy capable personnel to form a specialized mine accident emergency rescue team, conduct professional training, and implement semi-military management.

4. Adhering to law-based governance of mines is an effective way

Government of mines according to law is an objective requirement to regulate the order of mines and ensure long-term stability of mines. It is also a situation that accelerates the standardized, orderly and healthy development of the mining industry. trend. To promote the management of mining according to law, we must first clarify the responsibilities and strictly investigate them. While strengthening the main responsibility of mining enterprises for safety production, in accordance with the principle of "centralized management and unified rights and responsibilities", we will further rationalize the safety supervision functions and responsibilities of safety supervision, coal and iron ore industry departments, and towns, and eliminate the phenomenon of wrangling and "constraints". And establish a "horizontal to the edge, vertical to the bottom" responsibility implementation system, increase the intensity of accountability, seriously investigate and deal with various behaviors that fail to fulfill responsibilities, and ensure the healthy operation of the mine supervision system. Secondly, we must do a good job in the implementation of mine safety production regulations. Focusing on promoting standardized management of mine safety and quality, we conscientiously implement the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China, the Mine Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and a series of mine safety production regulations. All mining enterprises that release production must implement safety production standards in place, strengthen dynamic supervision, and establish a "three-level" regular downhole re-inspection system of security inspection departments, industry management departments, and townships to conduct timely inspections and rectifications. Regarding the problem of substandard safety, mining companies are urged to strictly follow safety regulations in production. Once again, we must persist in a long-term and severe crackdown on illegal mining without a license. Affected by huge mining profits, it is difficult to stop illegal mining without a license. In this regard, it is necessary to intensify the crackdown and establish a multi-level and continuous inspection mechanism to detect and ban every one. Fourth, we must resolutely combat “mining corruption.” In recent years, "collusion between government officials and mines" has become one of the main factors that hinders the management of mining according to law. Therefore, to treat mining, we must first treat "people".

While severely punishing illegal mine owners, it is necessary to strengthen the integrity education of party and government cadres, especially those working in mining-related departments, and enhance their awareness of integrity and self-discipline through positive guidance and negative warnings. At the same time, we will take the crackdown on "collusion between government and mines" in-depth, thoroughly investigate and deal with the behavior of investing in mines in various hidden ways, remove the "protective umbrella" of illegal mine owners, and remove the "stumbling blocks" in mine safety management.

(1) We must continue to carry out rectification of the order of mineral resources management in accordance with the law, resolutely crack down on and severely investigate and deal with various illegal activities in the exploration and development of mineral resources, and further strengthen the regular supervision and management of mineral resources, so as to Maintain normal mining exploration and development order and promote the sustainable development of mineral resources.

(2) It is necessary to further deepen the reform and take effective measures to gradually solve the problems of excessive number of mines, backward exploration and mining technology, and unreasonable layout. The land and resources management department must strengthen the planning and management of mineral resources, effectively regulate the mining industry structure, the total amount of mineral resource development and the layout of mines, and solve the problem of large mines and small mines. Strictly manage the approval of mining rights, gradually strengthen the qualification management of mining enterprises, and raise the threshold for enterprises to enter the mining industry.

(3) Classified management of mineral resources should be gradually implemented. Starting from the different importance of national economic construction and according to the characteristics of different mineral resources, dynamically different management methods, management contents, and management procedures are implemented to effectively strengthen the effective management of various mineral resources. In particular, for scattered minerals, without damaging the environment and ensuring safe production, the certification procedures should be simplified and resources should be rationally utilized to avoid unlicensed mining due to cumbersome certification procedures and harsh requirements.

(4) We must adhere to the principle of separating public welfare geological surveys and commercial geological work, and improve the new mechanism for mineral resource exploration. Strengthen public welfare geological surveys, actively provide social services of basic and public welfare geological survey results information, reduce natural risks for commercial mineral exploration, and guide the development of commercial mineral exploration. It is necessary to increase efforts to cultivate and standardize the market for exploration and mining rights, and establish a new mechanism for the optimal allocation of mineral resources that combines government management and market operations. Mineral resources belong to the state, and mining should be paid. It is necessary to change the practice of enterprises relying on administrative approval, allocation and other methods to obtain mining rights for free. It is necessary to establish and improve a fair, just, open and standardized market for exploration and mining rights through the evaluation of mineral resources, adopt public bidding and auction methods, and provide equal treatment to different investors to obtain exploration and mining rights. It reflects the state ownership of mineral resources, and on the other hand, it also protects the legitimate rights and interests of exploration and mining rights holders.

(5) Promote the paid use system of mining rights and solve the problem of dual-track mining rights as soon as possible. The gap between the free mining rights granted by my country's administrative allocation and the mining rights obtained through paid transfer in the market is not only the gap and unfairness in income, but also leads to problems in the order of mineral resource development such as over-strata and cross-border, illegal transfer, and government-coal collusion. Therefore, governments at all levels must focus on the bidding, auctioning, and listing of paid transfers of mining rights, and achieve fundamental changes in the government's management of mineral resources as soon as possible. The paid acquisition of mining rights can enhance the self-protection awareness of mining rights holders and help mobilize their enthusiasm to maintain the normal order of mineral resource development.

(6) Check and plug regulatory loopholes from the source and increase efforts to combat illegal mining. First, we must strictly control the transportation permit and cut off the sales channels of illegal miners, so that the mineral products they mine illegally have nowhere to sell, and they will not make a profit; we must strictly investigate the resale of transportation permit, and strictly control the illegal purchase of mineral products business owners and individuals brought to justice. The second is to strictly control the supply and use of pyrotechnics materials. In particular, the purchase and use of pyrotechnics materials through illegal channels must be severely investigated and punished in accordance with the law. Mining rights holders who provide pyrotechnics materials to illegal miners must be severely investigated and punished in accordance with the law. All localities must identify typical cases, expose them publicly, and crack down hard. Especially in remote areas with inconvenient transportation, response measures must be strengthened to not give lawbreakers any opportunity to mine illegally. At the same time, it is necessary to increase the amount and intensity of investment in well destruction and sealing, so as to increase the difficulty and cost of illegal mining and make it less capable of illegal mining. Mineral resources 110 can also be established in extraordinary times.

(7) Fully implement the dynamic law enforcement inspection responsibility system and give full play to the overall linkage function of comprehensive law enforcement. Practice has proven that the implementation of a dynamic law enforcement and inspection system for mineral resources can promptly detect and stop illegal activities and nip problems in the bud. It is an important measure to prevent illegal mining from the source. Dynamic inspections are very effective in preventing and eradicating guerrilla-style indiscriminate mining and illegal mining in special areas.

To combat illegal mining, the government must take the lead and give full play to the comprehensive law enforcement functions of land and resources, courts, inspection, disciplinary inspection and supervision departments, and actively enlist the power of multiple parties to form a synergy. The parties involved in the violation must be seriously held accountable. If the circumstances are serious, the judicial authorities shall hold them criminally responsible. Functions and responsibilities should be clarified in combating illegal mining, so that there is both division of labor and cooperation. More importantly, comprehensive law enforcement should be strengthened. , to prevent illegal miners from slipping through the crackdown.

(8) Accelerate the revision and improvement of mineral resources laws and regulations, and establish a long-term mechanism for the supervision of mineral resources exploration and development. A heavy blow is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to achieve scientific and reasonable development and sustainable development. The means to achieve this goal must be improved and strengthened from the legal system and mechanism, and the loopholes in supervision must be plugged. In the future, the revision of the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China should make a major breakthrough in legal liability investigation, making it more operable and harder to crack down on.