Thoughts on the Development of Mineral Resources Economics with Chinese Characteristics

According to the requirements of the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on "speeding up the construction of the discipline system, academic system and discourse system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics", there are some problems in the development of mineral resources economics in China, such as the imperfection of the discipline system and academic system, and the imperfection of the personnel training system. The development of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics must adhere to the guidance of Marxist political economy and Xi Jinping's economic thought, take the excellent traditional Chinese culture as the background, adhere to the people-centered resource values, and study the economic relations and laws in the exploration, development, utilization, protection and management of mineral resources. The purpose is to coordinate and solve the contradiction between the people's growing need for a better life and the scarcity and limitation of mineral resources, and to serve the common prosperity of all the people.

Meng Xuguang, Zhou Pu, Shen Yue, Zhang Hui. Thoughts on the Development of Mineral Resources Economics with Chinese Characteristics [J]. China Land and Resources Economics, 2023, 36 (7): 4-9. He emphasized that a country without developed natural sciences could not be in the forefront of the world. A country without prosperous philosophy and social sciences can not be at the forefront of the world. In 2022, "Accelerating the construction of the discipline system, academic system and discourse system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, and cultivating and strengthening the talent team of philosophy and social sciences" was written into the report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC. In the same year, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the first national development plan for philosophy and social sciences, the National Development Plan for Philosophy and Social Sciences in the 14th Five-Year Plan Period, emphasizing the construction of China's independent knowledge system in the new era. As an integral part of philosophy and social science system, how to adapt the development of mineral resources economics to the requirements of the times and embody Chinese characteristics is a difficult problem to be solved urgently.

In the splendid history and culture of our country, the thought of resource economy is mostly contained in the practice of national governance and social production. The economic thought of mineral resources in ancient China was mainly embodied in the determination of mining and product management rights, as well as the formulation of national policies such as mining tax, such as the idea of governing the country put forward by Guan Zhong of Qi State in the Spring and Autumn Period. In modern times, China began to explore ways to solve the economic problems of resources such as the delimitation of prospecting and mining rights and the collection of taxes and fees through legal means. Article 6 of the Nineteen Articles of the Regulations on Mining Affairs promulgated in the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu (1902) of the Qing Dynasty stipulated that "the importance of the category of minerals out of the well depends on the importance of the tax rules", such as 5% for iron and 15% for gold and silver. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, China began to carry out large-scale research on resource economy in the 1950s. At that time, the focus of attention was mostly on the comprehensive investigation of natural resources, zoning and geographical research. In the early 1980s, mineral resources economics was born as an independent discipline. After the reform and opening up, the demand for mineral resources in rapid industrialization and urbanization has increased substantially, and the comprehensive development and utilization of mineral resources and the technical and economic evaluation of mineral deposits have attracted attention. The research on mineral resources development strategy, paid use, resource price, resource depletion and compensation has been gradually carried out, and the disciplines have developed synchronously. In 1981, the Chinese Society of Geology and Mineral Resources Economics was founded; in 1982, the Research Center for Geological Technology and Economics of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources (now the Chinese Academy of Natural Resources Economics) was established; in 1983, the Journal of Trends in Geological Technology and Economics (now the Chinese Journal of Land and Resources Economics) was launched. At the annual meeting of geological economics in 1990, the experts attending the meeting put forward the suggestion of "introducing economic science into the cause of geology and mineral resources", and began to carry out the discipline construction of geological economics in a planned way. Mineral Resources Economics (Jia Zhixi, 1992) and Geological Exploration Economics (Wang Xikai, 1992) were published one after another. In 1993, the Chinese Academy of Geology and Mineral Economics supported the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources to apply for the establishment of the National Title Assessment Geological and Mineral Economic Research Series. In the new era, with the gradual improvement of the theory of socialist market economy, the deepening of the reform of ecological civilization system and the advancement of Chinese-style modernization, mineral resources economics pays more attention to the research of owner's rights and interests, resource allocation, paid use, green development of mining industry, resource security and other issues.

After decades of efforts, China's mineral resources economics has made remarkable achievements and is undergoing major changes. First, while paying attention to the economic relationship between supply and demand of resources and studying the sustainability of resources, we began to pay attention to the sustainability of the ecological environment, and social harmony was also put forward as an important issue. Secondly, we should pay more attention to the rights and interests of the owners of resources while studying the distribution of benefits between the exploration, exploitation and utilization of mineral resources. Thirdly, we should strengthen the concept of systematization, pay more attention to the relevance between the development and utilization of mineral resources and economic, social and environmental development, highlight the global perspective, study resource security, resource governance, optimal allocation and other issues, and focus on the stability and resilience of resource industry and supply chain. Fourthly, more attention should be paid to the evaluation of resource utilization efficiency, the layout of resource development and utilization, and the optimization of structure.

According to the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there are still some problems in the development of mineral resources economics in China. First, the discipline system is not perfect. The subject orientation, research object and content system of mineral resources economics are not very clear. Based on the collection of related works in the past 40 years in China, it is found that different authors have different understandings of the research object and content system of mineral resources economics, some of which pay more attention to the feasibility study of mine construction projects and technical and economic evaluation of mineral deposits at the micro level, while others pay more attention to the sustainable development of mining industry, mining investment and risk analysis at the meso level. Some of them involve the analysis of supply and demand situation at the national level, the management system of mineral resources, etc. Different versions of mineral resources economics have their own logical main line, content system, theoretical and methodological system. In the past five years, there are even few monographs on mineral resources economics. Second, the academic system is not perfect. The basic theory, especially the theoretical system of mineral resources economy adapted to the socialist market economic system with Chinese characteristics, needs to be reconstructed, and the methodological system needs to be upgraded and innovated. Third, the personnel training system is not perfect. Although "Introduction to Mineral Resources Economics" has been listed as a general course by Peking University, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Northeast Petroleum University and other institutions also offer courses on mineral resources economics, or as a compulsory content of the postgraduate entrance examination, few students are really interested in mineral resources economics.

2 The orientation and attributes

of mineral resources economics In the National Standard of the People's Republic of China, Classification and Code of Disciplines (2009), resource economics has the same status as political economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, ecological economics and environmental economics, and belongs to the secondary disciplines of economics. In the Catalogue of Disciplines and Specialties for Doctoral and Master's Degrees and Postgraduate Training (Revised Edition 2018), "Economics" belongs to the second category, and "Population, Resources and Environmental Economics" belongs to the category of "Theoretical Economics". But the academic circles have different views on the disciplinary nature of mineral resources economics. According to Jia Zhixi, mineral resources economics takes mineral resources as its research object, studies the production and consumption of mineral resources as the basic elements of social material production, the status, role and law of mineral resources in the whole process of social production, especially in the movement of productive forces, and the resulting economic relations of mineral resources in production, distribution, exchange and consumption; Both mineral resources economics and geological exploration economics belong to applied economics. Li Wanheng believes that mineral resources economics is a subject that studies the status and role of mineral resources as a factor of production in the process of social reproduction, as well as the conditions, scope and manifestations of the occurrence of the law of economic movement; The economics of mineral resources belongs to the category of applied economics, which is classified as a branch discipline with the economics of mineral geology and technology according to the factors of productivity, and is subdivided into the economics of mineral raw materials, the economics of energy and fuel, and the economics of water resources according to the types of mineral resources. Alan Randall believes that resource economics is a branch of microeconomics and an applied economics that studies natural resources and environmental policies.

Mineral resources economics is a science that studies the economic relations, economic laws and economic policies in the exploration, exploitation, utilization, protection and management of mineral resources, and is a sub-discipline of economics, a first-level discipline in the system of philosophy and social sciences. Mineral resources economics involves all the economic and policy issues related to the production, distribution and consumption of mineral commodities, focusing on the study of production relations in the development and utilization of resources, and is integrated with national economics, natural resources, geography, public management, ecological economics, environmental economics, industrial economics, institutional economics and spatial economics. It is also an interdisciplinary subject of theoretical economics and applied economics, macroeconomics and microeconomics.

Mineral resources

are the main source of energy and agricultural fertilizer for national economic and social development, the "food" for industry, the indispensable material for human production and life, and the most basic guarantee for human survival and development. Therefore, all countries in the world attach great importance to the stability of key mineral industry chains and supply chains, as well as the research and formulation of resource strategies or policies. Compared with the discourse system of the West, China's mineral resources economics has distinct characteristics: First, the theoretical basis is different. China's mineral resources economics adheres to the guidance of Marxist political economy and Xi Jinping's economic thought, takes the excellent traditional Chinese culture as the background, and takes public ownership as the main body and the common development of multi-ownership economy. The theoretical system is constructed under the basic socialist economic system, such as distribution according to work as the main body, coexistence of various modes of distribution, and socialist market economic system. Secondly, the view of resources is different. Mineral resources economics in China adheres to the people-centered value of resources, resources development for the people, resources utilization for the people, resources interests for the people, and adheres to the resource utilization concept of saving priority and the resource ecological concept under the guidance of ecological civilization, so as to promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature; We should adhere to the global view of resources with a new system of global resource governance as the core, and seek our own development in firmly safeguarding world peace and development instead of following the old path of some countries acquiring foreign resources through war, colonization and plunder. Thirdly, the service objects are different. China's mineral resources economics serves the Chinese people who pursue the coordination of material civilization and spiritual civilization, rather than capital owners who pursue the maximization of profits. Fourthly, the research purposes are different. By protecting, liberating and developing productive forces, China's mineral resources economics coordinates and solves the contradiction between people's growing need for a better life and the scarcity and limitation of mineral resources, and pursues the common prosperity of all the people, rather than supremacy of capital interests. Development for the people is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy and the fundamental difference between Marxist political economy and capitalist economics.Mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics must adhere to the people's position in setting research objects and improving content system, theoretical system and methodological system.

4. The research object and content system

of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics Under the framework of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, the discussion of the research object and content system of mineral resources economics inevitably involves production relations and productivity. Mao Zedong pointed out: "We should take the balance and imbalance between productive forces and production relations, and the balance and imbalance between production relations and superstructure as the key link to study the economic problems of socialist society.". In his important speech at the Congress commemorating the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, Xi Jinping pointed out that "to learn from Marx, we must learn and practice Marxist thoughts on productive forces and production relations", "We should dare to deepen reform in an all-round way, consciously stimulate the vitality of social productive forces by adjusting production relations, and consciously adapt to the development of economic base by improving superstructure. Let socialism with Chinese characteristics move forward more in line with the law. This paper holds that the research object of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics is mainly the economic relations and laws in the exploration, development, utilization, protection and management of mineral resources, as well as the economic policies to promote the coordinated development of productive forces and production relations in the field of resource economy. It includes six aspects as a whole:

(1) Economic activities of mineral resources. The production, distribution, exchange and consumption of mineral resources, as well as complex economic activities such as mine ecological restoration, have broadened the scope of available mineral resources, even enhanced the function of resources, and directly affected the quality and quantity of resources supply. Among them, the production activities of mineral resources include the preparatory activities in the early stage of resource utilization (investigation and evaluation of mineral resources, exploration, etc.), resource exploitation, secondary resource recovery and utilization, discovery and development of new resources, etc. In addition, it also includes the distribution of mineral resources among various sectors of social production, different regions and different subjects, the exchange, occupation and consumption of resources and related products, and the ecological restoration of mines. Systematically analyzing and grasping the role, characteristics and development trend of mineral resources economic activities is the basis of carrying out resource economic research.

(2) The economic relationship between the development, utilization and protection of mineral resources. Economic relations, namely production relations, are the mutual relations formed by people in the process of material production and reproduction, and they are the most basic relations in all kinds of social relations. Economic relations in a narrow sense refer to the relations between people formed in the direct production process, while economic relations in a broad sense refer to the system of production relations including production, distribution, exchange and consumption. The study of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics covers a wide range of economic relations. It includes the relationship between people and mineral resources, the relationship between resource development and protection, the relationship between mineral resources and other natural resources, the relationship between mineral resources and ecosystems, the relationship between different links of mineral resources industry chain and supply chain, and the relationship between people due to the development and utilization of mineral resources.

(3) The economic law of the development, utilization and protection of mineral resources. Economic law is the universal, essential and inevitable connection between social and economic phenomena. According to the different fields, it can be divided into common economic law and special economic law. In the field of mineral resources economy, there are not only the common laws of market economy, such as the law of value, the law of competition, the law of supply and demand, but also the unique laws of space-time evolution. Among them, we should pay special attention to the particularity of the common law in the field of mineral resources economy. Taking the law of supply and demand as an example, there is a certain proportional relationship between the supply and demand of commodities, and the change of this relationship has a certain regularity. The basis of its dynamic balance is that the amount of social labor to produce a commodity must be in line with the social demand for this commodity. However, as far as the change of the supply-demand relationship of a specific mineral product is concerned, the quantity and quality of its supply are first limited by the natural abundance and economic availability of the resources needed to produce the mineral product, and are not necessarily positively related to the amount of social labor needed to produce the mineral product, which is determined by the natural attributes of mineral resources such as scarcity and unbalanced spatial distribution. In view of this, mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics must respect the natural attributes of mineral resources, reveal the law of supply and demand balance of mineral resources, study the dynamic balance mechanism of natural supply, economic supply and effective demand of natural resources, and coordinate the development of material civilization, political civilization, spiritual civilization, social civilization and ecological civilization. The way to coordinate the development of mineral resources system, economic and social system and ecological system is sought.

(4) Sustainable utilization of mineral resources and its path. Development and protection are the long-term themes of resource economics, and sustainable development is the eternal goal. Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, adopted at the seventieth session of the General General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015, States that "we want to create a world where natural resources, from air to land, from rivers, lakes and aquifers to oceans, are produced, consumed and used in a sustainable way". As a part of natural resources, the sustainable utilization of mineral resources is a systematic concept involving quantity dimension, quality dimension and space-time dimension. Considering the sustainable utilization of mineral resources from the perspective of economics involves many aspects and is very complex. It emphasizes the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, the fairness of resource allocation within and between generations and between different regions, and the sustainability of resource development and utilization. What is the sustainable utilization of mineral resources? How can we achieve sustainable use? How to determine the optimal depletion rate of mineral resources? How to promote the green and low-carbon development of resource economy?

(5) Means and methods of optimal allocation of mineral resources. The rational allocation of resources has an extremely important impact on the quality and level of a country's economic development, and the rational allocation of resources is an important path to achieve sustainable use of resources. Under the condition of socialized mass production, resources can be allocated by government, market and the combination of government and market. Among them, how to give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources under the socialist market economic system with Chinese characteristics is the focus of the study of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics. The main research contents include: the distribution relationship between different kinds of mineral resources and the wealth and welfare created by them among the state, local governments and different interest groups, the boundary between market allocation and government allocation of resources, and the mechanism and means of optimizing the allocation of mineral resources.

(6) The economic policy in mineral products resource government. China's practice since the reform and opening up shows that the protection, liberation and development of productive forces are mainly achieved through the transformation and adjustment of production relations. Under the background of promoting the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity, we should properly handle the relationship between the government and the market, optimize and adjust the relationship between the development, utilization and protection of mineral resources by formulating and implementing effective economic policies for mineral resources, protect, liberate and develop productive forces, and provide stability for the construction of Chinese-style modernization. It is the basis of putting the theory of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics into practice. The economic policies involved include property rights of resource assets, paid use, ecological compensation, conservation and utilization, statistical accounting, resource allocation, resource prices, resource taxes and fees, resource industries, etc.

5 The theoretical system and methodological system

of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics The theoretical system of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics is mainly composed of three parts: The first is the theory that determines the position of constructing the theoretical system of natural resources economics, including Marxist political economy, Xi Jinping's economic thought, etc. The second is the theory that embodies the excellent traditional Chinese culture and natural laws, such as harmony between Man and Nature, Taoism, natural law, the concept of resource development and utilization, as well as the natural geographical laws such as the integrity of the natural environment, the conservation of material, the natural rhythm, and the spatial differentiation. The third is to study and analyze the theory of the main problems and solutions of mineral resources economy. It includes at least five basic theories: (1) the theory of resource value, which focuses on how to define the value and price of resources; (2) the theory of resource property rights, which focuses on the system of property rights and the realization of state ownership; (3) the theory of resource accounting, which focuses on the physical and value accounting methods of resource assets; (4) Resource evaluation theory, which focuses on how to evaluate the effective demand for resources, the availability of resources, and the stability of the safe supply of resources; (5) Resource governance theory, which focuses on the allocation of resources, macro-control and standardized management. The change of

economic theory can not be separated from the innovation of methods, and the choice of methods is very important in economic research. Mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics is a theoretical and practical discipline, which must be studied from the perspectives of nature, economy, society, ecology, space-time change, owners and users, using qualitative, quantitative and modern information technology methods. Its methodological system consists of three parts: the first is Marxist philosophy. Only by adhering to dialectical materialism and historical materialism can we constantly deepen our understanding and accurately grasp the law of economic development of mineral resources. The two is the world outlook and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. World outlook is people's general and fundamental view of the whole world and the relationship between people and the world. In class society, the world outlook has a distinct class nature, and what kind of world outlook has what kind of methodology. Mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics must adhere to the people first, must adhere to self-confidence and self-reliance, must adhere to integrity and innovation, must adhere to problem-oriented, must adhere to the concept of system, must adhere to the world. Third, the commonly used economic methods. Including empirical analysis and normative analysis methods, logical thinking methods (induction, deduction, etc.), mathematical model analysis methods (Pareto, Hotelling, input-output, cost-benefit analysis, marginal analysis, etc.), information technology methods (system theory, cybernetics, GIS, etc.). In the use of methods, we should pay attention to three issues: first, we should do a good job of synergy and complementarity of multiple methods, because many research methods have preconditions, scope of application or shortcomings; second, we should do a good job of combining traditional methods with modern scientific or technological methods; third, we should do a good job of combining western economic methods with China's reality.

In a word, the development of mineral resources economics with Chinese characteristics must keep pace with the times, adhere to the problem-oriented and systematic concept, focus on the practical problems in the field of mineral resources economy in the new era, and focus on research priorities, innovative theories and explore new methods in the practice of China's reform and development. Firstly, we should make the theoretical deduction of mineral resources economy conform to the behavioral characteristics of the field of realistic resources economy, take the theory of resource value and property rights as the basis, take the sustainable utilization of resources as the purpose, and realize the consistency of theoretical innovation and practical activities in logical thinking; Second, we should be able to discover and solve the major problems of social practice in the field of mineral resources economy, and realize the consistency of methods and paths with actual needs.