Canada To Ask China Re Mining RightsCanada Says It Will Ask China to Improve Mining Law Rights
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's Trade Minister James Peterson said he will ask China's government to speed up efforts to improve the rights of overseas mining companies such as Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. operating in the country.
China's current mining laws don't offer guarantees that foreign mining companies can develop deposits they find in the country, especially when it comes to gold, Peterson told reporters in Shanghai. Under current laws, foreign mining companies that get exploration licenses aren't guaranteed a mining license if a deposit is discovered.
``The rights are not exactly the same as what domestically- owned companies enjoy,'' Peterson said. ``We have been asked by a number of extraction companies to raise these issues.''
China's government said in a white paper issued in December 2003 that it would revise laws on overseas investment in mining within three to five years, to make coal, iron ore and other mineral exploration and development more attractive.
Peterson is on a six-day visit in China with Prime Minister Paul Martin and representatives of 250 Canadian companies as part of an effort to boost commercial ties. He may sign an oil supply agreement, with the country's second-largest trading partner. Peterson will meet his Chinese counterpart Bo Xilai tomorrow.
``The mining law and the mineral tenure in China has been problematic,'' Ivanhoe's Chief Executive Robert Friedland told reporters in Australia on July 28.