Basis of Forklift Lease and Forklift Confiscation in Illegal Mining

The Mineral Resources Law clearly stipulates that unlicensed mining is illegal. When dealing with unlicensed mining, the land and resources management department may, according to the Mineral Resources Law and its supporting regulations, order it to stop mining, compensate for losses, confiscate the mined mineral products and illegal income, and may also impose a fine; Those who refuse to stop mining and cause damage to mineral resources shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law. However, when handling specific cases, grass-roots land law enforcement inspectors found that many unlicensed mining tools used by illegal parties could not be confiscated by using the above laws and regulations, which led to a vicious circle of unlicensed mining, and illegal parties would continue to destroy the environment and resources, resulting in major accidents. Then, is there a legal requirement for grassroots land law enforcement inspectors to confiscate unlicensed mining tools?

To deal with unlicensed mining cases, three laws and regulations can be applied, such as the Mineral Resources Law, the Administrative Punishment Law, and the Measures for Investigating and Banning Unlicensed Operation (Order No.370 of the State Council of the People's Republic of China).

Article 40 of the Mineral Resources Law stipulates that anyone who mines without a license shall be punished, and may be ordered to stop mining, compensate for losses, confiscate the mined mineral products and illegal income, and may also be fined.

The third item of Article 8 in Chapter II of the Administrative Punishment Law stipulates that administrative organs may confiscate illegal property for illegal acts. We believe that confiscation of illegal property refers to the form of punishment in which the administrative organ nationalizes prohibited items or tools used to commit illegal acts according to law. Tools used to commit illegal acts mainly include tools used to make illegal profits and articles related to illegal acts.

At the same time, unlicensed mining also violates the Measures for the Investigation and Banning of Unlicensed Business. Among the five kinds of unlicensed business practices listed in the Measures, unlicensed mining belongs to Item (1) of Paragraph 1 of Article 4, that is, unlicensed business practices that should be obtained without obtaining licenses or other approval documents or business licenses according to law.

Article 17 of the "Measures" has clearly stipulated that the licensing examination and approval department shall punish the illegal acts stipulated in Items (1) and (5) of the first paragraph of Article 4 of these Measures in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations; The relevant laws and regulations have no provisions on the punishment of illegal acts, and the licensing examination and approval department shall punish them in accordance with the provisions of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of these Measures. This article explains that the administrative department of land and resources is one of the subjects of punishment, and measures can be taken to dispose of confiscated unlicensed mining equipment. First of all, the land and resources management department is the licensing examination and approval department; Secondly, unlicensed mining belongs to Item (1) of Paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the Measures; Third, the confiscation of illegal mining equipment falls within the scope of Article 17, which stipulates that "the relevant laws and regulations have no provisions on the punishment of illegal acts", because the Mineral Resources Law was promulgated earlier, and there is no specific provision on the confiscation of unlicensed mining tools, while the Measures for Investigating and Banning Unlicensed Business Operations was promulgated later, with specific supplementary explanations on the development and utilization of natural resources, the business activities that destroy environmental resources and the confiscation of tools specially used for unlicensed business.

In practical work, Hainan Province promulgated the Interim Provisions on Illegal Seizure and Seizure of Mineral Resources according to the above laws and regulations, and Shaanxi Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also cited the Measures for Investigating and Banning Unlicensed Business in the Opinions on Rectifying and Regulating the Order of Mineral Resources Exploration and Development.

To sum up, the land and resources management department can use the above laws and regulations to punish unlicensed mining, confiscate the tools of unlicensed mining, and fundamentally solve the problem of unlicensed mining.