International oil prices saw a significant increase on Monday, with gains of over two percent, driven by escalating tensions in the Middle East that have raised market fears regarding energy supplies.
As of 18:30 Beijing time, light crude oil futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by 2.61 percent, while November delivery Brent crude oil futures in London increased by 2.83 percent.
The primary catalyst for this price surge is the ongoing escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Following U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks on Sunday regarding potential actions against Iran and the possibility of controlling its oil, Iran reported that it had shot down a U.S. military drone over the Strait of Hormuz the next day.
Additionally, on Friday, Saudi Arabia announced the shutdown of its East-West Pipeline as a precautionary measure after it was subjected to multiple attacks a day earlier. The Saudi Ministry of Energy confirmed that these attacks targeted the pipeline in the country's central Riyadh region and western Medina region, causing several injuries.
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in the East-West pipeline, which carries crude oil from its eastern fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices rise by more than 2 pct amid escalating Middle East tensions
Oil prices rise by more than 2 pct amid escalating Middle East tensions
China has revised its mineral resources catalog, increasing the number of recognized subtypes from 84 to 119 while keeping the number of mineral types at 174, giving regulators a more detailed basis for exploration, mining rights and strategic resource policy, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on Tuesday.
Drawn up with the National Development and Reform Commission, the catalog updates a classification dating from 1994 and divides mineral resources into four broad groups: energy, metallic, nonmetallic and water and gas resources.
Qiao Chunlei, deputy director-general of the ministry's Department of Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision, detailed how the revisions reshuffled existing categories.
"We added nine mineral types and merged 15 into six. Some mineral types in the previous classification were reclassified as 13 subtypes, and we added another 22 subtypes. We also changed the names of some mineral types," he said.
The net effect leaves the overall number of mineral types unchanged, while the expanded list of subtypes allows regulators to draw finer distinctions within them.
Among the minerals formally included in the catalog is high-purity quartz ore, which Chinese authorities recognized as a mineral type last year. A key material in semiconductor and solar manufacturing, it is precisely the type of strategic resource the catalog was revised to manage.
The ministry said the finer classifications would support its work in setting exploration and development targets, identifying promising areas for prospecting and allocating mining rights. They would also inform the selection of strategic minerals for special protection and the design of differentiated policies on extraction, stockpiling, imports and exports.
"This revision will help secure mineral supplies and support the effective implementation of regulations under the Mineral Resources Law. The catalog will inform planning, policy, property rights, standards, statistics, taxes and fees, law enforcement and environmental protection. It will provide a foundation for more precise, science-based management of the country's mineral resources," Qiao said.
Going forward, the ministry plans to align the catalog with mineral resources planning, mining rights administration, industrial policy, resource statistics and the collection of resource taxes and fees, giving every category of mineral a clear administrative identity.
China revises mineral resources catalog to guide mining and strategic resource policy
