The old saying goes: The autumnal equinox, day and night are average, cold and hot. The China International Mining Conference, which opened in Tianjin on September 23, coincides with the autumnal equinox, one of the twenty-four solar terms in China. The hot and cold weather and the cold and hot weather seem to cater to the current mining situation that is stabilizing and bottoming while still hovering low.
The theme of this conference "Promoting the Spirit of the Silk Road and Promoting the Prosperity of the Mining Industry" aims to proactively seize the new situation and opportunities of global mining development, condense the wisdom of the Silk Road, inherit the tradition of the Silk Road, and push the building of a global mining community with a future . The conference held under such a theme is naturally full of vitality, positive and pragmatic. However, the anti-globalization trend of many countries in Europe and America, the new situation, new changes and new opportunities brought by my country's increasingly strict environmental protection and safety policies have also attracted much attention. What do you think about the global mining situation and prospects? What should I do in the future? Senior government officials, industry elites, experts and scholars have expressed their opinions, many of which are quite constructive and practical.
(One)
Minister Jiang Daming's speech at the opening ceremony of the conference summarized the current mining situation with a high degree of accuracy. He pointed out that looking at the world, the world economy has begun to resume growth, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are gaining momentum, and the wave of innovation and creation is increasing. Beginning in the second half of 2016, the total market value of global mining companies rebounded for five consecutive quarters. The mining activity index has basically broken out of the downturn range, and the bottoming has stabilized. However, the world economy has not yet gone out of the sub-health and weak growth adjustment period, economic globalization has encountered a countercurrent, the prices of important minerals are still hovering at low levels, and the global mining industry has a long way to go. He said that in the face of the complicated economic situation, we must learn from history and summarize the successful model of mining development; more importantly, we must face the future and explore innovative ways to revitalize the mining industry. Throughout the long history of mining development, the spirit of the Silk Road with peaceful cooperation, openness and tolerance, mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win as the core is also the essence of the global mining industry to promote prosperity.
Jiang Daming said that the mining industry chain has been deeply integrated into the process of global economic integration, and is closely related to economic development, employment increase, poverty eradication, and improvement of people's livelihood. It is the common mission of the global mining industry to seize the opportunity of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, promote the innovation of mining theory, system, technology and equipment, and inject new momentum into the development of mining industry.
At last year's China International Mining Conference, Jiang Daming proposed, "I am willing to work with other countries to continuously improve the exchange and cooperation mechanism and jointly build a global mining community with a shared future." This year, he also proposed to deepen cooperation between the mining departments of various countries, strengthen dialogue on mining policies, enhance communication on development strategies, promote the signing and implementation of bilateral and multilateral cooperation framework agreements, and provide policy support for international mining cooperation. In terms of geological survey, resource reserves, green prospecting and mine construction, promote the docking and mutual recognition of standards and specifications, coordinate the resolution of major issues of common concern, and promote the improvement of the global mining governance system.
The call issued by Minister Jiang Daming to the mining industry around the world shows that the senior management of my country's mining industry is confident in the future development of the mining industry, and also shows our positive and pragmatic attitude. Jiang Daming said that the Ministry of Land and Resources of China and colleagues in the mining industry are willing to play a constructive role in providing Chinese solutions and contributing Chinese forces to building a global mining community with a shared future.
At the same time, officials from the mining departments of Sudan, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Mali, South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and other countries respectively put forward some new ideas on mineral resources, environment, investment and other aspects of their respective countries at the ministerial forum of this conference. The policies and new regulations introduced the mining situation and prospects of various countries, and they unanimously expressed their willingness to strengthen mining cooperation with other countries.
(2) The top government officials are confident, so what are the real feelings from colleagues in the industry?
Wang Jionghui, assistant to the general manager of China Minmetals Corporation, who has long been engaged in mineral resource strategic research and mining project mergers and acquisitions, believes that since 2016, the global economy has generally shown a slow recovery trend, and the fundamentals of mining supply and demand have improved and stabilized. The mining industry has basically broken away from the trough period of cyclical adjustment and has entered a stage of bottoming recovery. At present, the key to judging the long-term development of global mining depends on the growth in demand brought about by the development of emerging economies represented by China. Although China's economic growth has slowed down, it is still in a period of rapid development. It is still the driving force and engine of world economic development. A series of special policies in China have injected new momentum into the recovery of the mining industry.
Wang Jionghui believes that the current recovery of the mining market is determined by the relationship between supply and demand, returning to the basic attributes of mining development. However, the formation of this round of mining recovery is different from the previous prosperity period, and now it presents new development characteristics, the most important manifestation is that the mining development trajectory is cracking. The rapid development of technology and data intelligence will bring huge changes and differentiation to the mining industry. This development trend will have a profound impact on mining companies. Resource varieties need to be re-allocated, and the development field will extend the resource end to the resource processing link, and enter the downstream industry and material industry, which will become the development strategy choice of some mining companies. At the same time, green environmental protection will have an important impact on the development of the mining industry. Paying more attention to green mining and environmental protection in mines has become a rigid requirement for resource exploration, development and utilization. This will increase the rigid cost of mining development, reduce the geological space available for exploration and development, and bring more challenges to resource exploration.
Song Xin, Chairman and Party Secretary of China National Gold Corporation believes that from the perspective of the global environment, the international political and economic situation is complex and changeable, international trade and investment are sluggish, the United States and other developed economies have high debts, and emerging markets and developing economies. The economic growth rate of China has been squeezed, the trend of anti-globalization and trade protectionism is on the rise, the impact of the Brexit negotiations and the German election on the political situation of the European Union, as well as the Syrian war and the geopolitics of the Korean peninsula are fully reflected in the gold market. , To further increase the uncertainty of the development of the gold industry, especially the violent fluctuations in the price of gold, which brings many challenges to the production and operation of gold enterprises. From the perspective of domestic economic development, my country's economy is in a period of transformation and upgrading of deepening reforms and structural adjustments. As my country's influence on the world grows, the upward resistance from domestic and foreign economies will also increase. In the long run, there is still a long way to go in deepening and advancing supply-side structural reforms, eliminating excess and backward production capacity, preventing and controlling debt risks, promoting enterprise quality and efficiency, and improving enterprise core competitiveness and cost control. From the perspective of the development of the gold industry, green development has become the main tone of the current and future development of mining enterprises. The implementation of the new environmental tax law, the disposal and withdrawal of mining rights in nature reserves will have a profound and far-reaching impact on the gold industry, and put forward specific and clear requirements for companies in the gold industry to accelerate the construction of ecological civilization.
Wang Jionghui said that in the future mining development, only cooperation and innovation can meet the challenges brought about by great changes. To this end, he called on all resource countries to actively create a good environment for mining investment and cooperation, further enhance policy transparency, simplify administrative procedures, strengthen examination and approval efficiency, and improve the investment environment. All relevant parties actively participate to promote the effective flow of mining elements and inject momentum into the global mining boom.
Song Xin said that gold is a leading industry in the construction of the “Belt and Road”, a precious strategic resource, a financial capital to defend the country’s financial system, and an important pillar for the internationalization of the RMB. We must give full play to our advantages, consolidate the foundation of cooperation, deepen the supply-side structural reform of the gold industry, practice the Silk Road spirit of co-construction, sharing, mutual benefit and win-win, and contribute wisdom to the transformation and development of the gold industry.
(3) The authorities are not necessarily fascinated, but the bystanders are ultimately clear. The opinions of experts and scholars from research institutions in the mining industry on the mining situation are more meaningful.
The "One Belt One Road" initiative put forward by the Chinese government provides a Chinese solution for exploring and solving the problems of world economic development. Cooperation in mineral resources and mining is an important part of it. Shi Yulong, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Institute of China's National Development and Reform Commission, reported on the relationship between the “Belt and Road” and energy and mineral resources products at the meeting, and mentioned that with the changes in China's comparative advantages, the structure of foreign investment has been quietly changing. The current growth of foreign investment in energy resources has gradually given way to the growth of other processing and manufacturing sectors. This shows that with the changes in the global economic growth environment, China's resource advantages and endowment conditions are also changing accordingly: the energy and mineral resources field is an important foundation and content for China and countries along the route to carry out project cooperation under the framework of the “Belt and Road”, but It also reminds us that cooperation in the field of energy and mining needs to be transformed and upgraded, and it needs to develop in a more technologically content, environmentally friendly, greener and low-carbon direction.
At present, China's strengthening of environmental protection has caused changes in the investment conditions for mineral exploration. Liu Yikang, a senior manager of the China Mining Federation with "practical experience", talked about mineral exploration in the environmental storm on this topic. He believes that the environmental storm has a great impact on mineral exploration, and how the situation will develop remains to be seen. In any case, mineral exploration must establish a sense of self-discipline, protect the green waters and mountains, and not leave scars on the earth. "In the past, when mineral exploration projects were established, the specifications only required the study of the impact of the environment on the exploration and development, but did not require the destruction of the environment by the exploration and development. Therefore, we lacked such qualities and habits of thinking. It can be said that it is time to make changes. "Liu Yikang believes that when talking about mining environmental protection, we should start with mineral exploration. The implementation of green survey is a good idea. Liu Yikang believes that the current implementation of green surveys in my country means that in the process of implementing geological surveys, advanced surveying methods, methods, equipment and techniques are used to minimize the negative impact on the ecological environment through strict survey site management. A new exploration mode that realizes both prospecting and environmental protection. Green prospecting also requires the layout of mineral prospecting to avoid natural reserves, and to promote green prospecting demonstration projects through propaganda, research, and establishment of new environmental protection concepts for mineral prospecting. In addition, Liu Yikang proposed that attention should be paid to the convergence of mineral exploration and environmental protection laws and regulations. For example, he said that the current withdrawal of mineral exploration from nature reserves is a complicated issue, and this complexity is due to the complexity of the management system and system. “Because the borders of some protected areas have not yet been surveyed, the mineral exploration industry has also expressed its own opinions and concerns. Therefore, to make up for the shortcomings in the construction of laws and regulations, and to do a good job in the connection of mineral exploration and environmental protection laws and regulations is to do a good job in mineral exploration. Legal guarantee for environmental protection."
Johan Magnus Ericsson, professor of mineral economics at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, believes that the benefits of the mining industry outweigh the disadvantages. In emerging countries and even many countries, the mining industry can actually bring a lot of growth opportunities. Everyone wants to improve their living conditions. To improve their living conditions requires metals and minerals. According to a study he participated in, none of the 20 countries with the highest share of the mining industry in GDP in 1996 came from a high-income economy. Looking at 2014 again, the economic conditions of almost all these 20 countries have improved, and at least one class has improved. In other words, compared with 1996, their level of development has improved significantly. In addition to the contribution of mining to the economy, changes in indicators such as the human development index and government governance are more obvious in these mineral-producing countries or countries rich in minerals.
