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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 12, 2002

China Sees Record High in Mineral Trade

China's total volume of foreign trade in mineral products reached a record high of 100 billion U.S.dollars in 2001. To rise to the challenge of the country's access to the World Trade Organization, the domestic mineral industry had made great efforts to explore international cooperation.


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A record high of mineral imports and exports

China's total volume of foreign trade in mineral products reached a record high of 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2001.

Statistics released Thursday (April 11) by the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said that China increased its imports last year of many mineral products to meet domestic demand such as iron ore, copper ore and potash fertilizer.

As the average import duty for mineral products was slashed to 9.03 percent in 2001, home market demand was guaranteed by greater imports.

To rise to the challenge of the country's access to the World Trade Organization, the domestic mineral industry had made great efforts to explore international cooperation, according to the ministry.

Jointly projects launched for oil exploitation

In 2001 alone, a total of 149 oil contracts and agreements had been signed between the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and 70 counterparts in 18 countries and regions and over 6 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment had been used.

The China National Petroleum Corporation and the China National Petrochemical Corporation also teamed up with overseas oil companies to jointly launch projects on the improvement of exploitation efficiency.

In 2001, the Chinese government issued 80 exploitation licenses and 48 mining licenses to foreign businesses.

Although Chinese oil companies' share in the world market is still small, domestic oil conglomerates had begun to increase their global presence, said the communique.

To date, the China National Petroleum Corporation have produced 14 million tons of crude oil and 800 million cubic meters of natural gas abroad.



China's Minerals Exploitation
According to the 2001 Communique for China's Land and Resourcespromulgated by the Ministry of Land and Resources, among the 156 mineral resources that can be exploited in China, there are nine energy resources, 54 metals, 90 non-metals and three other liquidsor gases.

Last year, China newly verified 1.64 billion tons of coal, 727 million tons of oil and 430 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Other mineral resources with comparatively large reserves include iron, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, gold and sulfur.

In recent years, the Chinese government has intensified prospecting for minerals with the investment in geological explorations rising to 22.7 billion yuan (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) last year. >>details




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