Which is what I have been thinking since the day this thread was first posted. China is well known for its laws and habit of controlling everything that its citizens do. Hence if mining is illegal people would not dare to run it underground. However I am not aware of insider details, I would assume that the people there would be terrified of resuming mining even after a ban is running and think twice before re-starting if the ban if lifted.

Such a news article will make no sense until the ban is actually lifted.