China finds 5 bln tonnes of oil in 2008-2011 survey (2)

During the four years, some 370.8 billion yuan was spent on mining resource exploration, up 110 percent year-on-year. Among the total, central and local government funds took up only 15.3 percent, while the rest came from social investment, Xu said.

Meanwhile, a security deposit system to protect the environment in mining areas has been implemented in 30 provinces so far, Xu said.

According to the system, mine owners have to pay a security fee to land administration organs before they can begin mining. The fee will be returned to the owners if they successfully repair environmental damage resulting from the mining. If they fail to do so, the fee will be seized and used by the government to clean up the area.

Xu said strengthened efforts have also been made to solve persistent environmental problems that occurred in the past, clean up tailing mines and crack down on illegal mining.

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