Unlicensed mining firm faces city's biggest fine
By Ni Yinbin |
April 3, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A MINING company in south China's Guangdong Province has been fined more than 725 million yuan (US$115 million) for continuing to operate after its license expired, local media reported yesterday.
The fine, imposed by the Land and Resources Bureau in Maoming, is the biggest in the city's history ... and could be higher still.
Bureau officials told the New Express newspaper that the fine could rise to 1 billion yuan to punish Maoming Petrochemical Mining Co Ltd for additional illegal profits.
The company's license for the Jintang mining area in Maoming expired on June 30, 2009. Before that date the privately owned company had been negotiating with the state-owned Maoming Petrochemical Group but had failed to extend or update its license.
However, the company, which has more than 2,000 employees, did not halt operations but kept mining while continuing to apply for a license, the bureau said.
It was warned that its operations were illegal in September 2009 and in May and June the following year.
The fine was in two parts - confiscation of illegal income of around 560 million yuan and 30 percent of that figure, said the bureau.
However, the bureau said income earned from November 2010 to last August had not been included and that was an additional 285 million yuan.
According to the newspaper report, the mining company said the reason it did not get its license was because the government wanted to sell it to the Guangdong Guanhao High-Tech Co Ltd.
Huang Xiaoqing, a vice manager, said the sale to Guanhao was a violation of legal procedures.
The fine, imposed by the Land and Resources Bureau in Maoming, is the biggest in the city's history ... and could be higher still.
Bureau officials told the New Express newspaper that the fine could rise to 1 billion yuan to punish Maoming Petrochemical Mining Co Ltd for additional illegal profits.
The company's license for the Jintang mining area in Maoming expired on June 30, 2009. Before that date the privately owned company had been negotiating with the state-owned Maoming Petrochemical Group but had failed to extend or update its license.
However, the company, which has more than 2,000 employees, did not halt operations but kept mining while continuing to apply for a license, the bureau said.
It was warned that its operations were illegal in September 2009 and in May and June the following year.
The fine was in two parts - confiscation of illegal income of around 560 million yuan and 30 percent of that figure, said the bureau.
However, the bureau said income earned from November 2010 to last August had not been included and that was an additional 285 million yuan.
According to the newspaper report, the mining company said the reason it did not get its license was because the government wanted to sell it to the Guangdong Guanhao High-Tech Co Ltd.
Huang Xiaoqing, a vice manager, said the sale to Guanhao was a violation of legal procedures.
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