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Source: Yanzhao Urban Daily. Yesterday, the Provincial Department of Land and Resources held a meeting to address the issues revealed by the ‘12·3’ mine collapse accident in Xinglong County, with the aim of improving the order of mineral resource development and cracking down on illegal activities such as mining without permits or beyond permitted limits. Four officials from the land and resources department were removed from their positions. -Outcome of the investigation: 4 responsible persons have been removed from their positions. It is understood that the director of the Land and Resources Bureau in Xinglong County, the deputy director in charge, the team leader of the Law Enforcement and Supervision Bureau, as well as the head of the local Land and Resources office have all been dismissed from their posts. The causes of the \"12·3\" accident in Xinglong County are still under further investigation. The meeting demanded that the land and resources departments take this as a lesson and implement effective measures throughout the province to crack down severely on all kinds of illegal activities related to mineral resources, thereby ensuring stability in the order of mineral resource development across the province. -Illegal operation: The mine entrance is outside the scope permitted by the license. It is understood that the mine in question began operations in 2003; the person holding the mining rights holds a metallurgical production license issued by the county’s metallurgical industry authority, but the mine entrance is located outside the area specified in that license. During the 4 years from the start of mining operations in that mine until the accident occurred, the Land and Resources Bureau of Xinglong County never discovered this mine entrance. Since this mining site held a metallurgical production license, it was able to obtain explosives and pass the annual inspections conducted by the metallurgical industry authorities. Moreover, as the land administration department failed to carry out proper on-site measurements, the county land and resources bureau continued to consider this site to be a legitimate one within the scope permitted by its license. It was not until the accident occurred that actual measurements revealed that the site was actually outside the limits specified in the license. -Rectification measures: Audit of illegal pit operation permits. It is understood that Chengde City has issued the \"Urgent Notice on Auditing and Handling Illegal Pit Operation Permits and Production Licenses\" as well as the \"Notice on Suspending the Approval of Land for Construction in Xinglong County\", thereby suspending the approval of mining rights and land for construction in Xinglong County and conducting a thorough audit of illegal pit operation permits and production licenses. According to current legal regulations, mining enterprises must currently possess a mining license, a safety production license, a business license, a mine manager’s certificate, and a qualification certificate for mine managers; only by having these five certificates can they be considered legitimate. In addition, coal mining operations must also hold a coal mine safety production license issued by the Coal Safety Supervision Bureau. It is understood that in recent years, in some areas, it has been possible to mine minerals simply by having a \"pit entrance operation permit\" and a \"pit entrance production license\". According to industry experts, such accidents reveal two problems: first, some local authorities and industry regulators exceed their authority in violation of the Administrative License Law by arbitrarily issuing illegal \"pithead production licenses\" to mining enterprises” ； Secondly, some land and resources management departments fail to conduct strict on-site measurements when supervising mining enterprises; they fail to detect unauthorized mining and mining beyond permitted limits in a timely manner, and do not take adequate action to address such issues. (Zong Miaomiao, Xu Guanghui)