More and more mines in the Uyghur region are being sold

China has put 127 mining rights on the market

Notices and advertisements are circulating on social media platforms in the Uygur region about the transfer of 127 mining rights for a fee.

In the notice given in the media under the management of Hotan provincial government, this matter is given in more detail.

According to Xinjiang newspaper news, the "2024 Xinjiang mining rights legal transfer project introduction conference" was held on June 22 in Hotan.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Autonomous Regions introduced two-level certificate-issuing projects for the transfer of mining rights, as well as projects in the Corps. The purpose of the conference is to promote the development of mineral resources and to attract more companies to the region to invest in mining. The 127 mining rights projects introduced on the same day include gold, copper, oil, natural gas, lead-zinc, iron, lithium and other mining projects, covering an area of ​​22,600 square kilometers. Among them, there are 79 mining rights projects in the three provinces and two prefectures in the south, accounting for 62% of the projects to be transferred for a fee. On the same day, an agreement was signed on the spot with 14 enterprises regarding the transfer of mining rights.

 According to the Xinjiang Public Resources Business Network, on June 30, 24.50% of the shares of Huashayun Lead and Zinc Mining Company were changed, and the transferee was Xinfa Group Co., Ltd. After the change was completed, Xinjiang Geology and Mining Group owned the company's shares. accounting for 75.5%. According to media reports, The final transaction price was more than 3 billion yuan. The minerals are zinc ore and lead ore, and the mining period is until 2038.

 What is the status of mineral reserves?

85 counties and 59 counties and cities in Uyghur Province have valuable mineral resources such as gold and lithium. The Uyghur Autonomous Region accounts for 88% of the 173 minerals exported from China. The Altai Mountains, the Mountains of God, the Kuenlun, and the Black Desert Mountains are rich in mineral resources.

In 1999, China's development and use of resources in the Uyghur region was further strengthened by the "Great Western Development Policy". After that, with the so-called targeted aid policy of the Chinese provinces to the Uyghur people, the green light was given to the Chinese provinces to steal resources from the Uyghur land on their own under the name of "aid". Since Xi Jinping designated Uyghur as the "energy base of the Silk Road Economic Belt" in the so-called "One Belt, One Road" project, Uyghur has become the main and largest base for supplying China with energy and even the world's solar panels.

 China continues to sell exploration and development rights to Chinese companies

In April of this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China announced the "Ideas to Guide the Strengthening of Equipment Construction for a New Stage of Breakthrough Strategic Action". Now, they are encouraging Chinese private enterprises to come to Uighur and participate in mining by publishing advertisements such as "We will double the value of Xinjiang's current great development opportunities and continuously increase investment efforts in Xinjiang", "Investing in Xinjiang is investing in the future".

According to Chinese news networks, in 2023, the number and revenue of mining rights sales in the region set a record high, with 184 mining exploration rights being transferred for a fee. This is a 94% increase from 2022.

In 2024, it will further increase the amount of mining transfer. It plans to acquire not less than 170 mining exploration rights in the area to be transferred for a full year.

Since 2024, China has been increasing the transfer of mining rights in the region. From January to May, 51 autonomous region-level patrol rights were sold. Sold major lithium mines.

 From June to December this year, the authorities are also planning to sell a number of oil and natural gas, coal, lithium, copper, iron, gold, potash and other important minerals, especially in the southern mines.

The Uygur region's mineral resources are China's and even the world's source of green energy

However, it is a reality that all the mineral resources of the Uyghur region have been transferred directly to the Chinese provinces by the Chinese government, and the Uyghur and other local peoples in the region have not been able to benefit. Even the fact that the region has been unable to get rid of the title of the poorest region in China shows that the local people who have the right to benefit from the resources of the land have not benefited at all.

At the same time that Xi Jinping started a policy of genocide against the Uighurs, the Uighurs are being deprived of any material and cultural resources that belong to them.

It is known that in today's world, lithium batteries are one of the raw materials of new energy sources that are replacing gasoline and other energy sources to prevent environmental pollution. China's lithium-ion batteries account for 80 percent of global production. This means that China currently ranks first in the world in the production of lithium batteries.

But what is worrying is that the mineral resources extracted from the Uyghur land by Uyghur forced labor are being linked to China's export of electric car industry and lithium battery, aluminum, and solar panel products for electric cars.

The mining project of lithium resources in Golden Mountain has been entrusted to the mining of Jiangxi Jisun New Energy Raw Materials Co., Ltd., which belongs to Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Group. However, in December 2022, this company was mentioned in a report on Uyghurs released by a research group led by Prof. Laura Mufi, a researcher on human rights and contemporary slavery at Sheffield Hallam University.

Aluminum is also an important element in car manufacturing. The metal and its alloys are used in dozens of automotive components, from engine blocks and frames to wheels and electric battery components.

 These parts are found in cars made in China and exported to many countries around the world. According to Human Rights Watch's report on aluminum from the Uyghur region, the Uyghur region is an important source of aluminum, and its production has increased significantly in recent years.

The Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) in Washington, D.C., in October last year and April this year, respectively, in two reports titled "Global Uses of Gold Produced in the Uyghur Autonomous Region" and "Wrought Iron" in the U.S. and the world through hundreds of Uyghur forced labor companies. The daughter showed that the stolen gold and iron were being used. They surveyed 27,000 companies around the world, including 423 companies with a high rate of Uyghur forced labor because their parent companies use gold from Uyghur regions.

In connection with the publication of these reports in October 2023, the research institute interviewed us after the implementation of the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Law", noting that the Chinese government's export policies have not changed much. "It is unfortunate that we have not seen any changes in Chinese policies. In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party is making steady progress according to its five-year plan. International pressure is also increasing, but we have not yet seen the changes we hope to see. said.

Indeed, the fact that China is continuing to mine Uyghur lands shows that such restrictions are still insufficient.

: C4ADS Mining expansion in Uighur region exacerbates forced labor

Michelle Kondi, an analyst at Washington-based C4ADS, responded via email on July 12 to questions about the implications and concerns of the Chinese government's listing of 127 more mines in Uighur. They concluded in their letter:

 “As highlighted in our report, the mining industry in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is poised for significant expansion. According to data from the Xinjiang Ministry of Natural Resources at the beginning of 2023, half of the licensed mines are currently operating. The other half is still under investigation. This continued expansion means that Uyghur land auctions will soon increase, which are linked to forced land transfers or land occupation and forced labor to control the population in the region. "It is critical that standards-setting agencies, businesses and governments act now. As long as this trend continues, Xinjiang's mining industry will grow rapidly."

The letter also emphasized:

 "The situation created by the Chinese Communist Party in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region means that all the labor force in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will be forced into labor (as stated in the "Rebuttable Presumption" in the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).) That is, as the transfer of mining rights increases, we can predict an increase in the number of people facing forced labor conditions, regardless of company ownership. The continued forced displacement of Uyghur land for industrial expansion and exploitation is at the core of atrocities against Uyghur and other ethnic minorities, which the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has concluded may constitute a crime against humanity.

One by one, Uyghur-derived mineral resources are listed as forced labor products

China's clean energy sector, namely the calendar industry, is one of the sectors with the heaviest Uyghur forced labor. That's why Chinese-made calendars have been banned from being imported by the US government for two years. US Customs and Border Protection has seized more than 1,000 calendar emails related to forced labor since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act went into effect in June 2022.

The U.S. government has recently begun banning Chinese aluminum products on suspicion of Uyghur forced labor.

According to Bloomberg, the US Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice to detain aluminum products made in China, particularly Uighurs, targeting aluminum used in major auto parts.

The U.S. government officially implemented the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in June 2022 and banned Uyghur forced laborers from cotton, tomatoes, and polysilicon used in semiconductor manufacturing.

On July 11, Human Rights Watch in the United States published a special article in the Daily Focus section, advocating that "the European Union should add Xinjiang and aluminum to the forced labor database."

He also noted that in coordination with the United States, China should deal with the use of forced labor by participating countries. In this statement, they emphasized that the inclusion of aluminum from the Uyghur region in the forced labor database is not only very important to stop the Chinese forced labor of Uyghurs, but more broadly, it is expected to add considerable strength to the global response to the serious international crimes committed by the Chinese government in the Uyghur region. as

Among the experts in the field of geology, Dr. Gulmere Berdash, who received a doctorate in natural geography from Japan, explained that the unplanned expansion of Uyghur mineral resources is a sign of future disasters for the Uyghur people and the environment of the Uyghur region.

 "Our mineral resources are vital to China's energy strategy, and China is moving with unprecedented urgency to plunder our resources. "Unplanned and irresponsible opening of them will not only intensify the looting, but also accelerate the destruction of our country and lead to serious ecological destruction."