Present situation and countermeasures of economic development and ecological protection of mining industry in China

China is a big country of mining and mineral resources in the world. As a pillar industry of our national economy, mining has made great contributions to the country's economic and social development. With the continuous improvement of industrialization, the excessive development and irrational use of mineral resources have caused soil erosion, cultivated land destruction, environmental pollution and geological disasters to varying degrees, resulting in the deterioration of ecological environment. The high intensity consumption of mineral resources in the process of releasing a large amount of carbon dioxide is one of the direct causes of sea level rise and climate warming. The contradiction between mining economy development and ecological environment is becoming more and more prominent, which not only affects and restricts China's economic development, but also threatens human survival. How to protect the "clear water and green mountains" on which we live while getting "Jinshan and silver Mountains" has become a problem that we face together and need to solve urgently.

l. Ecological and environmental problems caused by mineral resources exploitation

In the process of human beings pursuing a higher quality of life, the ecological environment has been destroyed by human activities and lifestyles. As for the relationship between industrial development and ecological environment, in ancient times, human beings mainly relied on the gifts of nature, and had low awareness and poor ability to actively transform nature, and the impact on ecological environment did not exceed the scope of nature's self-regulation ability. With the development of agricultural society, people began to exploit natural resources in large quantities, but the problem was not prominent because of the initial stage of ecological environment destruction. After the Industrial Revolution, as the population continued to rise, human understanding of nature was further deepened, the level of use of new technologies was further enhanced, and the predatory exploitation ability of natural resources reached an unprecedented level, resulting in the gradual reduction of resource reserves and increasing environmental pollution, and the speed and extent of ecological pollution far exceeded the capacity of natural environment to withstand and self-renew. Pollution problems emerge in an endless stream, and the environmental situation is extremely severe.

Nowadays, the large-scale mining of mineral resources and the irregular development of mining work have become the main causes of environmental pollution and ecological imbalance. The destruction of the ecological environment caused by the exploitation of mineral resources has the characteristics of large area, wide scope, long time and various forms. If it is not paid attention to in time, it will seriously endanger the national economic security and social and political stability.

1.1 The natural environment is seriously polluted and biodiversity is under threat

Improper exploitation of mineral resources can easily cause water, land, climate and other natural environment pollution. On the one hand, the mining process of mineral resources will destroy the groundwater layer, drain the groundwater, cause the groundwater level to fall, and introduce the waste water containing a large number of heavy metals and harmful substances into the surface, resulting in the shortage of water pollution and accelerate the spread of diseases, according to the United Nations report. Every year, more than 2 billion people in the world face the problem of water shortage, and more than 2.2 million people lose their lives due to water pollution. China is one of the countries with the most serious water shortage in the world, with two thirds of cities having insufficient water supply and one sixth suffering from severe water shortage. On the other hand, mining of mineral resources, especially open-pit mining, needs to peel off a large area of surface land and remove surface vegetation, resulting in changes in landform and topography, including soil erosion, ground collapse, vegetation destruction, etc., so that the surface gradually loses stability, and then causes earthquakes, mudslides, mountain collapses and other geological disasters, directly endangering human life and property safety. In addition, a large amount of dust is generated during the mining, processing and production of mineral resources, causing serious air pollution and becoming the biggest environmental threat to human health. According to the report released by the World Health Organization, environmental pollution is seriously affecting the lives and health of millions of people around the world, and more than 3 million people die from air pollution every year. The continuous decline of ecological services has intensified species extinction, with an average of 200-300 species disappearing every year, and the ecological balance has been seriously disturbed.

1.2 The amount of solid waste is huge, and the ecological environment is overloaded

The development of mineral resources usually produces two kinds of solid waste, tailings and waste rock. With the gradual increase of mining volume, the accumulation of solid waste keeps increasing, and a large amount of land is occupied by solid waste, which leads to the shortage of land resources and limited development. At the same time, the accumulated solid waste after a long time of wind, sun, rain, the harmful elements of which are further released, continue to penetrate into the groundwater system, or form atmospheric pollution dust, seriously reduce the carrying capacity of water, soil and atmosphere, to the ecological environment has a serious impact and huge pressure. According to Statista data, the global public opinion survey statistics portal, the world produces about 2 billion tons of solid waste every year, which cannot be solved timely and effectively through garbage recycling or natural degradation, and pollution accidents occur frequently.