Yuri Trutnev reported that at the end of April a draft bill on mineral resources will be submitted to the State Duma for consideration.
The Minister also told the President about the results of mineral prospecting and extraction.
In addition to this, Yuri Trutnev informed the President that in Russia at present more minerals are prospected than are extracted. This concerns gas, copper, gold and diamonds.
In particular, in 2005 65 million tons more oil were prospected than in 2004. The Minister of Natural Resources pointed out that thanks to new technologies the oil recovery factor has been rising, and that this year for the first time the oil recovery factor reached the level at which stocks of oil are held constant.