Foreign businesses will be able to prospect for minerals in China, it was announced by the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The businesses should be foreign-invested joint ventures or co-operative companies, foreign working bodies or foreign representative offices that have officially registered with China's departments of industrial and commercial administration. They must have licenses to operate in the country.

Zhong Weizhi, director of the Geographical Prospecting Department, applauded the policy as "a big event in the introduction of foreign funds into China's prospecting of mineral resources."

In 1991, the former Ministry of Geology and Minerals banned foreign businesses from prospecting or qualifying as geological prospectors in the country.

To carry out their businesses in China, foreign investors had to depend on local geographic departments and leave them the actual leadership of field work.

"Having foreign partners willing to invest here is already not easy," Zhong said.

Chinese geographic teams now have to compete for foreign investors' projects, and foreign investors can choose their teams, said Zhong.

"What we look forward to is a win-win result," Zhong said.