After the country completed its latest assessment on oil and gas resources, China would aim to discover another 4 to 4.5 billion tons of oil and 2 to 2.25 trillion cubic meters of natural gas geologic reserves during the 11th Five-year Plan Period.

Besides that, China hopes to make breakthroughs on mineral resource surveying through assessment. It will try to have an extra 2.5 billion tons of proved reserves for iron ore, 20 million tons of proved copper reserves and 100 billion tons of resource reserves for coal.

China plans to push forward the system for paid use of mineral resources, improve the price-forming mechanism which reflects the interaction between supply and demand, and reform the tax and fee system for mineral resources next year. It will also launch a sweeping inspection on all the surveying projects to curb illegal exploitation and mining and improve the efficiency of mining, especially the coal mining.

By People's Daily Online