Green mine construction is steadily advancing to polish the beautiful green background of China



On August 15, China celebrated its first National Ecology Day. The theme of this year's event is "Clear water and green Mountains are gold Mountains and silver Mountains".

In recent years, as an important "actor" in the construction of a beautiful China, more and more mining enterprises continue to promote the coordinated development of mineral resources development and ecological environmental protection, protect the "green" background of mines, take the road of sustainable development, and supplement the ecological gold and silver mountains, so that the construction of green mines has become a vivid footnote to the construction of a beautiful China.

The iron ore drainage site is transformed into a green ecological park

In the middle of summer, the Angang Mining ecological Park in Anshan, Liaoning province, is full of flowers, trees and fruits. It is hard to imagine that this is the Dagushan iron ore drainage site of Angang Mining, formerly known as the "barren land".

When iron ore is mined, what is dug up is not all iron ore, but also a large amount of stone waste, and the so-called drainage field is the place where these wastes are stacked. When the wind blows, dust flies all over the sky.

Comparison map before and after ecological restoration of Dagushan Iron Mine drainage site. Respondent contribution

Since 2004, the mining company of Angang Group began to promote the environmental treatment and restoration of the Dagushan Iron Mine drainage site on a large scale and systematically, and the core task is to plant trees. However, it is not easy to do this job on the rocky mountain more than 100 meters high, and the biggest challenge is that there is no water or soil.

"In order to solve the problem of soil, we shipped tailings soil, added water retention agent, packed with woven bags or wicker baskets, planted the saplings inside, and then put the baskets and trees together into the stone pit." To solve the water problem, we diverted water from the mine up the hill and filled the cisterns. To solve the problem of saplings, we went through hundreds of experiments and selected robinia acacia as the main tree." The relevant person in charge of the mining company of Angang Group said that in the past 20 years, the Angang Mining Ecological Park has a total of four exhibition areas, such as science popularization exhibition area, fruit picking area, vegetable planting area and seedling cultivation area, and has completed the ecological restoration area of about 31.74 million square meters, planting trees, shrubs and other trees of about 14.1 million. Including more than 20 varieties of green and ornamental tree species, it is listed as the national green mine construction demonstration base.

"Flowers in spring, grass in summer, fruit in autumn and green in winter." Nie Zhenyong, spokesman for Angang Group and Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee, said that the current Angang Mining Ecological Park pays more attention to seasonality and appreciation, with orderly matching of flowers and trees and their own colors in each season, realizing the beauty of the four seasons printed on the slag mountain.

During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, Assistant Foreign Minister and spokesperson Hua Chunying posted five sets of satellite comparison maps on social media, highlighting the "changes in China in the past 10 years," including the Dongshan tailings pond of Anshan Iron and Steel Mining's Dagushan Iron Ore mine in September 2013 and the Anshan Iron and Steel Mine Ecological Park in September 2022. It can be clearly seen on the satellite map that Angang Mining has transformed the former tailings reservoir into a beautiful ecological park through ecological restoration.

The coal mine dump is transformed into an industrial tourist attraction

In addition to the steel industry, a similar scenario is playing out in the coal industry in Holingol, Inner Mongolia, thousands of miles away from Anshan in Liaoning province.

Standing in the Inner Mongolia Power Investment Group North open-pit coal mine observation tower, the panoramic view is endless green, camphor pine, spruce, cobia, golden Pheasant microphylla, sea buckthorn, alfalfa, alkali grass, sand Wang, grass rhinoceros and other vegetation lush.

"I didn't expect to see such beautiful scenery and good air quality when I walked into an open-pit coal mine." Not long ago, the ecological restoration and management area of the North open-pit coal mine welcomed the first batch of Dalian tourists to visit. The old mining area turned into a scenic spot for industrial tourism in Holingol City.

A few decades ago, it was a different place. In the 1980s, Holingol was built and prospered by coal. As a result, grassland vegetation has been destroyed, dust is everywhere, yellow sand is everywhere, and ecological restoration has also lagged behind.

Comparison of ecological restoration in North dump of North open pit Coal mine. Respondent contribution

"Since 2018, we have taken the technical route of" biological measures as the main, engineering measures as the spoke "and actively carried out the ecological restoration and management of mines. By 2022, the cumulative ecological restoration and management area of 11142 mu, 180 million yuan of investment, the external waste site has completed ecological management, and achieved the governance of the region's 'self-sustaining, maintenance-free' natural ecosystem." Liu Jingyu, director of the North open-pit coal mine, said that at present, the North open-pit coal mine has all been converted to internal drainage, and the corresponding ecological restoration and management are carried out according to the specific circumstances of the year.

The former gray dump is covered with "green", and many small animals also smell "green". 'It's now home to a number of wildlife such as the cock-nosed duck and the yellow-footed herring Gull. I saw a fox the other day and we've also attracted birds such as the spotted Muscovy, yellow-headed wagtail and the cranes.' Xue Shiqiang, a "post-90" who came to the North open-pit coal mine to engage in ecological and environmental protection work after graduation from university, said happily.

According to Li Yunfeng, senior director of safety and environmental protection management of Coal Department of Inner Mongolia Company of State Power Investment Group, since 2018, five mining areas belonging to the company, including South open-pit coal mine, Zahanauer open-pit coal mine, Baiyinhua No. 2 mine and Baiyinhua No. 3 mine, have completed mining ecological restoration of 75,000 mu. The ecological restoration and treatment rate is 100%, the utilization rate of surface humus is 100%, and the vegetation coverage is 90%, all of which meet the national green mine standards.

Construct green mine to take the road of sustainable development

Green is the base color of high-quality development of mining industry. The construction of green mine is an important measure to promote the construction of ecological civilization, and it is also the inherent requirement of the green development of mining transformation.

Reporter combing, China has a long history of promoting the construction of green mines. In 2010, the Guiding Opinions on Implementing the National Mineral Resources Plan, Developing Green Mining and Building Green Mines pointed out the direction for the full implementation of the planning objectives and tasks, and put forward the basic conditions for the construction of national green mines. In 2017, six ministries and commissions, including the former Ministry of Land and Resources, jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Green Mines" requiring that all new mines meet the requirements of green mine construction, and production mines accelerate the transformation and upgrading to gradually meet the requirements. According to the China Mineral Resources Report (2022) released by the Ministry of Natural Resources, more than 1,100 mines across the country have been listed as national-level green mines.

Experts said that green mine construction is a systematic project, all places in green mine mining, to scientific order, environmental control, ecological sustainability and other concepts into the whole life cycle of the mine, the single mine into the large river basin, the natural ecosystem unified consideration, unified management, take the road of sustainable development, Finally achieve the best comprehensive benefits of resources, environment, economy and society, and polish the beautiful green background color of China.

Wang Feng, deputy director of the Department of Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said at the forum on Green mining Development (Jianning Station, Fujian) that in recent years, the construction of green mines in mining areas has been used as an important platform and starting point to promote the high-quality development of mining and the construction of ecological civilization, combining with the actual introduction of new policies and new methods. It has played an important role in guiding mining enterprises to achieve green and low-carbon transformation. In the next step, the construction of green mines should be transformed from demonstration to comprehensive promotion. New mines shall be planned and constructed in accordance with green mine standards. Old mines should speed up the upgrading of green and low-carbon technology and equipment, formulate construction plans for "one place, one mine, one policy", clarify construction objectives, and gradually meet the requirements of green mine construction in stages and batches.