BEIJING: State-run China Central Television has run a show that sharply criticised foreign mining investors in China, and suggested the country might tighten restrictions over investment in the sector.
CCTV’s half-hour segment, entitled ‘Who Moved my Gold Mine?’, focused primarily on Australian miner Sino Gold and its Jinfeng mine in Guangxi province, in southwestern China, which will be China’s second-largest gold mine.
The show, run last week, was aired at a time Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has asked many Chinese firms to re-submit pending applications for mine investments there, and could reflect growing Chinese impatience as approval delays pile up, Australian mining sources said.
It also reflects a growing sense that China has opened too far to foreign investment in a number of industrial sectors, including natural resources, which are sensitive in many countries.
“Over 70 foreign miners are active in China, mostly in gold, and this has the utmost attention from the NDRC and other leaders. Rules on foreign mining are being revised,” said Ma Hongtao, the anchor for ‘Economic Half-Hour’, which aired the segment.
The National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, is China’s top planning body. It has lost much of its planning clout thanks to China’s economic reforms, but is still a powerful body with authority to approve all major projects.
China’s Ministry of Land and Resources has actively sought foreign investors to develop remote or difficult deposits, and ensure China has the minerals to feed its fast-growing economy.
But there is a growing movement to isolate some strategic minerals, including metals like indium, tungsten or rare earths, from foreign ownership, build reserves and limit exports so that China can ensure supply when needed in the future.
Critics of too much openness in mining have also complained that foreign speculators have flipped properties without fulfilling exploration quotas.
Meanwhile, only relatively small miners are active, since many foreign investors remain wary that they would not gain the right to develop any large or lucrative deposits they found. – Reuters