Administration of the mineral industry refers to administration of mineral resources and their exploration, development and utilization operations by state administrative agencies of mineral resources. The principal contents of such administration include: the administration of the state ownership of mineral resources, administration of exploration rights and mining rights, supervision and administration of mineral exploration and development operations, administration of geological exploration and development of mineral resources and administration of mineral resources and reserves.

The fundamental aims of the administration of the mineral activity are to bring into full play the initiative role of man, use various administrative, economic and legal means in maintaining the state ownership of mineral resources and lawful rights and interests of the holders of exploration and mining rights, maintain the normal order of mineral exploration and development activities according to law, promote rational development and utilization and conversation of mineral resources and sound development of the mineral industry, and provide mineral resource support and guarantees for sustained development of China's socialist modernization drive.

To realize this fundamental aim, efforts should be made to build up a contingent of mineral industrial workers and staff capable of undertaking effectively the task of mineral exploration and development and a contingent of civil servants capable of implementing administration; we must lay down a whole set of principles and policies and scientific laws and regulations and form an administrative system capable of operating effectively and efficiently and promoting development of the mineral industry and related agencies in charge of administrative organization and management.

1.8.1 Building of Contingents of Mineral Exploration and Development

In the early days after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong issued the great call "Develop the mineral industry". However, then there were only more than 800 geological workers and staff members in China, of which less than 300 persons were geological technicians. The contingent that engaged in mineral exploration and development was so small as not to be able to suit the new situation of carrying out large-scale mineral exploration and development according to the needs of state construction. Therefore, the building of a strong contingent of mineral exploration and development became a pressing task. Then the Central People's Government actively prepared to organize a contingent of mineral industry that was able to suit the needs of the new situation after the founding of the People's Republic of China while organizing the then-existing geological workers and staff to carry out work.

1.8.1.1 Development of the Geological Exploration Contingent

Immediately after the return from abroad in 1950, Prof. Li Siguang (J. S. Lee) joined in China's geological activities. Proceeding from the education undertaking, he started grasping the work of forming and developing a geological contingent. In November 1952, in his speech at the all-China geological work plan meeting Vice-Premier Chen Yun of the then Government Administration Council, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the then Government Administration Council, proposed that it was necessary to implement the policy of "great transformation and great development" and "build a strong geological contingent" in geological work. Owing to the concern and attention of the Party and Government and the support of the leaders, under the situation in which all that had been left undone were being undertaken, many geological colleges and schools were run, many engineers and technicians were trained and the broad masses of young people were called to join in arduous geological work. Meanwhile, large numbers of cadres were transferred from provinces and local regions outside the central departments and the army to replenish the geological contingent, and efforts were made to strengthen the leadership of the geological contingent and the construction of the style of thinking and foster the spirit of "three honors", i.e. regarding devoting oneself to the geological cause as an honor, regarding plain living and hard work as an honor and regarding rendering meritorious service in ore finding as an honor. Thus China's geological contingent developed and grew in strength rapidly. By the end of 1966, in various departments of the geological exploration sector there had been altogether 1,812 organizations and 877,583 workers and staff members, of which 170,068 persons were engineers and technicians, accounting for 19.38% of the total number of workers and staff.

1.8.1.2 Development of the Mineral Development Contingent

Before 1949, the mineral industry was much less developed in China and workers and staff that engaged in mineral activities were very limited. Since the founding of new China in 1949, especially since the reform and opening-up, the mineral industry has developed rapidly and the minerals developed and used have increased to 150 varieties, including the greater majority of energy minerals, metallic minerals and nonmetallic minerals with explored reserves. Therefore, workers and staff of the mining industry are widespread in many industrial sectors such as the coal, oil and natural gas, nuclear, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, gold, chemical, building materials and light industries. With the deepening of economic restructuring, under the guidance of the market economy and the policy of "a diversified economy dominated by one industry", there are not only a considerable quantity of workers and staff in the aforesaid major industrial sectors but also a fairly large quantity of workers and staff engaging in mining and beneficiation operations in some other sectors; mineral development activities are being carried out not only by national enterprises but also by locally administered state-owned enterprises, township (town) collective enterprises, private-owned small enterprises and enterprises of other economic types. Thus a nationwide massive contingent of mineral industrial workers and staff has been formed. According to the incomplete statistics of the Ministry of Land and Resources, by the end of 1997, there had been 12.9050 million mineral industrial workers and staff in mines which submitted annual returns, of which  6.8931 million persons belonged to state-owned large and medium-sized productive mining enterprises and those of other economic types, making up 53.41%, and 6.0119 million persons belonged to non-state-owned small mines, accounting for 46.59%.

In the past few decades, the Party and Government not only have paid attention to the development of the contingent of mineral industrial workers and staff and construction of the style of thinking but also shown much concern about the construction of technical equipment and logistic support of the contingent of the mineral industry. Hundreds of plants that produce exploration, mining and dressing equipment and instruments have been built, rear living bases of geological and mineral industrial workers and staff backed by towns or townships have been set up, and the construction of mine towns and townships was strengthened-all these have played stimulating roles in improving the living conditions of the mineral industrial workers and staff, thus giving full play to their initiative and accomplishing the tasks of mineral exploration and development splendidly.