China's investment in mining sector reached 108.646 billion yuan (about 13 billion US dollars) from January to August this year, up 35.6 percent year-on-year, said Vice Minister of Land and Resources Wang Min Tuesday.

With the rapid growth of China's economy, the mining production volume and industrial output value have been increasing dramatically, said Wang at China Mining 2004 symposium.

He said the industrial output value of China's mining sector and related energy and raw material sector reached 4.1 trillion yuan (495.7 billion US dollars) in 2003, accounting for 29.26 percent of the national total.

Last year, China's ore extraction and mining volume was 5.7 billion tons, crude oil 170 million tons, natural gas 34.13 billion cubic meters, coal 1.667 billion tons, iron ores 260 million tons and rolled steel 220 million tons. Moreover the production of ten major nonferrous metals reached 12.28 million tons, the production of gold 201.6 tons, silver 4,305.9 tons, phosphorus ores 24.47 tons, sulphurite iron ores 8.7 million tons,and cement 860 million tons.

China is the world's largest producer of coal, steel, ten majornonferrous metals, and cement; the second and third in production of phosphorous ores and sulphurite ores respectively. In respect to crude production, China is the world sixth largest producer. Besides, China is also a leading nation in production of tungsten,antimony and rare earth.

At present, China has a total of 145,000 mining companies: 527 large ones, 1,354 medium-sized ones and more than 140,000 small mines. These mines employ 9.3 million people. In 2003, there are 8,344 newly registered mines, which employ 195,100 people.

Through constant adjustment and restructuring, the number of certificates for mining has reduced from more than 270,000 in 1993to the present 145,000. However, the mining output value doubled during the same period.

"It means large-scale massive, illegal mining activities have been effectively contained and the mining structure and the scale of economy in the sector have been remarkably improved," said Wang

Source: Xinhua