Observation on the difficulties in the current development management of abandoned mines

Mine geological environment is an important part of ecological environment. Since 2001, the former Ministry of Land and Resources and other relevant departments have taken a series of measures to promote the special treatment of the geological environment of mines, carry out the action of mine greening, build a national mine park, and establish a deposit system for the restoration of the geological environment of mines, and initially establish an economic mechanism for development compensation and protection, and a number of resource-depleted cities have effectively restored the geological environment of mines. However, on the whole, China's mining geological environment restoration and comprehensive management are still not adapted to the requirements of the new situation, extensive development methods on the mining geological environment is still serious impact, ground collapse, land damage, vegetation and topographic landscape damage and a series of problems are still prominent.

In order to effectively promote the restoration and comprehensive treatment of the mine geological environment, especially the abandoned mine environmental restoration and comprehensive treatment of the responsible subject, on July 1, 2016, five ministries and commissions including the former Ministry of Land and Resources jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the restoration and comprehensive treatment of the Mine Geological Environment. The "Opinions" specifically pointed out that to speed up the solution of historical problems, encourage the participation of social funds, in accordance with the principle of "who governs, who benefits", give full play to the guiding role of financial funds, and vigorously explore the construction of "government-led, policy support, social participation, development-type governance, market-oriented operation" mining geological environment restoration and comprehensive management of a new model.

"In China, there are many abandoned stone mines left over from past mining. Most of them are in an abandoned state. But with the continuous guidance of national environmental protection policies and guidelines, some local governments have begun to pay attention to the restoration of abandoned mines, but the current restoration process is not very fast." Hu Youyi, president of the China Sandstone Association, said that the common problem of the current treatment and restoration of abandoned mines is that the repair of abandoned mines needs to invest a lot of money, and the mining enterprises have no more sources of funds after mining, and the government needs to formulate corresponding support and encouragement policies.

It can be said that the further clarification of "development-type management" and its affirmation at the national level have effectively cracked the problem that the central and local financial hearts and abilities are insufficient and social capital is lacking in enthusiasm in the comprehensive management of the geological environment of abandoned mines, and greatly promoted the comprehensive management of the geological environment of abandoned mines.

An abandoned mine has been transformed into an ecological park

Ligou Mountain is the highest mountain in Pingdu City, Shandong Province, with dozens of hills around it. At the end of the 1950s, the mine once became the "inexhaustible" treasure in the eyes of many people, in the rumbling of gunfire mining, accompanied by disorderly mining, mountain collapse, exposed rocks, mines densely covered, for a time the mountain was devastated, vegetation was almost gone, safety hazards, ecological environment was seriously damaged. The mountains around the mountain were not spared.

Part of the mine area in front of the mountain was once a flat landfill for more than 20 years, and the sewage and stench generated by the waste fermentation had made the surrounding residential areas less hospitable. After the loss of vegetation, the historical abandoned mine is located in the tuyere of Pingdu, and the annual weathered dust is blown over the city, which always affects the production, life and health of the public, and becomes a historical "scar".

With the support of the local government, Qingdao Beiyuan Company, a private enterprise, first tried to transfer and contract more than 1,400 mu of abandoned mines left over from history in Licou Mountain. Due to the shortage of land indicators, under the guidance of the government, the company set up a new company in the abandoned mine of Licou Mountain and established Qingdao Beiyuan Environmental Protection Building Materials Co., LTD. In order to plan the restoration and management of this abandoned mine, the company visited many countries in Europe and the United States to learn from experience, combined with local geological characteristics, invested heavily in the introduction of equipment from abroad, and jointly established an advanced manufacturing technology research center with relevant scientific research institutes, integrating advanced technology and equipment at home and abroad, to create a domestic leading recycling integration green cycle process program.

After eight years of unremitting renovation, the company invested nearly 200 million yuan, planting millions of trees and flowers, Lishou Mountain 1400 acres of historical abandoned mines, the restoration of green vegetation area has reached 1039 acres, a change in the past Manshan mine barren scene. The mines have been filled in, the bare mountain has been covered with soil, and the saplings are thriving. After renovation, the landfill is now a botanical garden with evergreen flowers and flowers all over the mountain. It is hard for people to imagine that underneath the mountain was once Pingdu's landfill for more than 20 years.

"After testing, the abandoned mine, which has been restored to green, can fix and adsorb 5,720 tons of sand and dust every year, absorb 34,600 tons of carbon dioxide, and produce 30,658 tons of oxygen, which greatly improves the living environment of Pingdu City, and fully reflects the social value of mine restoration and management." The company chairman Dai Jianqiang introduced that the company through the overall long-term planning and design, according to local conditions to create high-end leisure, sports tourism industry, to give abandoned mines new social value. It is planned to establish an ecological environment restoration and management education base, show the process of restoration and management of abandoned mines, and cultivate citizens' awareness of caring for the environment and participating in environmental protection. The equestrian club, RV camping experience base, basketball court, picking garden and so on have been built, which are welcomed by the public. In the future, according to the plan, tourism supporting projects such as soccer fields, golf driving ranges, ski meadows, RV bases, rock climbing, and mining pit hotels will be built, and high-end health care, education and training, and development training projects have been negotiated.

"In the next five years, the social benefits of the historical abandoned mine management project will be fully launched, and the abandoned mine is transforming into a green water and green mountains that let people remember nostalgia."  Dai Jianqiang said simply.

After on-site investigation, Hu Youyi said very approvingly: "Qingdao Beiyuan Company has opened up a new model of restoring abandoned mines into ecological parks." This model is in the forefront of the country, and has laid the case foundation for the concept of 'abandoned stone mine restoration +' proposed by the China Sandstone Association in combination with the national development direction and enterprise practices. The China Sandstone Association regards Qingdao Beiyuan as a national demonstration enterprise and model, which is to lead the abandoned mines all over the country to develop in this direction and make greater contributions to the construction of the ecological civilization of the country."

"Beiyuan is more creative in the treatment process of abandoned mines, and the case of Licou Mountain is worth studying and promoting." In the treatment of abandoned mines in the sand and gravel industry, the 'Litou mountain model' has played a role of 'pathfinder', from which we can get many Revelations, and relevant governments at all levels should give strong support to such a typical case." Song Shaomin, vice president of China Sandstone Association, director of the Expert Committee, professor of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, also gave full affirmation to this abandoned mine management project.

In Sishui County, about 200 kilometers away from Pingdi, the abandoned mine management of Sishui Huifeng Agricultural Development Engineering Co., Ltd. is also in full swing.

There were more than 200 mining and mineral processing enterprises in Sishui County, and the disorderly mining for many years resulted in a serious waste of resources and the destruction of cultivated land, which not only polluted the environment and destroyed the ecology, but also caused prominent contradictions between people and land, damaged farmers' interests, and brought many unstable factors to the society. At the end of 2008, Sishui County strengthened the standardized management of mineral enterprises and closed the iron-bearing gabbro mines, and the thousands of acres of iron-bearing gabbro mining areas left behind have not been effectively controlled.

The company seized the favorable opportunity when the Surabaya County Party Committee and the county government fully implemented the concept of "ecological county" into the "Surabaya Practice" and vigorously promoted environmental protection and ecological construction, actively engaged in the treatment of abandoned mines, established cooperative relations with China University of Geosciences and other well-known universities and scientific research institutions, and launched the land restoration project of Shengshuiyu abandoned mining area in 2011. Adhering to the principles of "land restoration, solid waste utilization, new building materials, sightseeing agriculture, ecological tourism", we set foot on the road of green development of repairing abandoned mines and developing ecological agriculture.

Take land reclamation as the leading and ecological remodeling as the main line, turn waste into treasure through the development of the secondary industry, eat dry and extract the resources, make the barren mine into flat and fertile land, and then promote the tertiary industry such as ecological tourism and picking through the development of agriculture. The company created the first domestic "land restoration, solid waste utilization, industry to compensate agriculture, ecological agriculture" of the new circular economy model, through the waste mining area ecological restoration marketization, scale, industrialization, to achieve self-generating, rolling development, without government financial investment can achieve sustainable development of the new model. Up to now, the company has invested a total of 70 million yuan, making the original abandoned mine of more than 1,300 acres into a "paradise" full of green eyes, birds and flowers, melons and fruits.

"In recent years, we have actively practiced the concept of green development, taken ecological poverty alleviation as our own responsibility, explored the development model of environmental protection and ecological construction, and created the first domestic circular economy model of 'land restoration, solid waste utilization, industrial supplement agriculture, and ecological agriculture' under non-financial investment, which not only turned the devastated abandoned mine into green water and green mountains, It has also made it a gold and silver mountain for local people to get rid of poverty and get rich, and led three surrounding villages and more than 200 poor people to successfully get out of poverty." Sun Zeling, the company's proud chairman, said.

In fact, this kind of "development-type" geological environment management of abandoned mines, which attracts social capital participation, has been tried in many places in the country, and has achieved remarkable results. Huixian City, Henan Province, through the introduction of social capital, has turned the abandoned mines accumulated in history into tourist attractions and amusement parks, which has driven the local economic development and the increase of farmers' income; Huaxin Cement Dongjun Mine near Kunming Changshui International Airport in Yunnan Province aims to create a green ecological mining recycling economy. In 2008, through the introduction of social funds to jointly carry out mine environmental restoration, it has invested more than 80 million yuan, completed more than 720 mu of green area, and planted 1.37 million trees. The restoration and management of a devastated open-pit mine has become a green world and a sea of flowers.

"Development treatment" faces "intestinal obstruction"

The implementation of "development-type management" of the geological environment of abandoned mines can not only save a lot of financial funds, reduce the pressure on the central and local finances, but also turn waste into treasure and harm into benefit, reduce resource waste, realize the maximum utilization of mineral resources, but also effectively improve the ecological environment and benefit the local people.

However, the reporter of China Mining News found in the grass-roots interview that such a good model of benefiting the country, benefiting the people, benefiting enterprises and benefiting the ecology is not implemented smoothly in many places, and some places even face the harsh environment of abandoned mines and do not know what to do, and dare not carry out "development-type governance".

The reasons for this are that, first, the opinions issued by the relevant ministries and commissions of the State are not specific, only guiding opinions, and there are no specific implementation rules. Although the "Opinions" proposed to vigorously explore the construction of "government-led, policy support, social participation, development-type governance, market-oriented operation" mining geological environment restoration and comprehensive management of a new model, but how to implement the lack of necessary safeguards.

The second is how to coordinate corporate interests and national interests in the process of "development-oriented governance". How to allow "development management", it means that there are certain mineral resources. How to dispose of this part of mineral resources, whether to pay equity fees, whether to handle mining licenses, and whether to allow management enterprises to export the extracted mineral resources to make up for management costs, which has become the key to restricting the large-scale implementation of "development management" at the grassroots level.

Third, "development governance" needs to occupy land, how to transfer the land, how to benefit from governance enterprises, which is the main reason for the low enthusiasm of governance enterprises.

Fourth, some local governments lack responsibility, dare not innovate, and prefer to keep the leftovers and do nothing, rather than take risks in "development" governance.

It is worth mentioning that because of the unclear relevant national policies and the inaction of some local governments, a few places have appeared in the guise of "developing-type governance" to steal mineral resources. Although this is an isolated phenomenon, the harm and impact are huge, leading some local governments to be timid and easily dare not implement "development governance".

"China Mining News" reporter in the investigation also found that some places in order to both regulate abandoned mines, but also to reduce the risk, directly took the safest and simplest way, the abandoned mines and newly closed mines directly bulldozing, as for the remaining mineral resources inside, do not consider. Abandoned quarry mines were bulldozed and the ecological environment improved, but the mineral resources were wasted. Local infrastructure construction and lack of sand aggregate, and had to be hundreds of kilometers away from the neighboring province at high prices.

"The pollution caused by mining to the ecological environment is difficult to recover like a scar left in place, and some waste has also caused an impact on the environment." However, on the issue of the restoration and management of abandoned mines, the state has not formulated a unified plan and policy, the management methods are different across the country, some areas have stagnated, and the areas that attach importance to the restoration of mines have a slightly faster process, and the remaining resources have been fully utilized. And some places either do not govern, or adopt a 'one-size-fits-all' type of chaotic governance that wastes resources." Hu Youyi analyzed that some enterprises with a strong sense of social responsibility, after their own development and growth, assume social responsibility under the call of the state and make contributions to society. Some enterprises take the initiative to repair abandoned mines, but at present, many local governments do not have a clear policy on the repair of abandoned mines, nor do they give affirmation, so that these enterprises encounter many problems in the process of mine repair, it is difficult to have a big action.

"Development governance" still needs the support of many parties

In the process of urbanization construction, abandoned mines (quarries) bring more serious landscape ecological problems to the city, and have a certain impact on the sustainable development of urban ecology, society and economy. In recent years, with the enhancement of China's economic strength and the promotion of ecological environmental protection awareness, people are paying more and more attention to the ecological restoration, transformation and utilization of urban abandoned quarry, and excavating its contained value.

"According to the research and practice analysis of the transformation of abandoned quarry at home and abroad, the transformation of abandoned quarry is mainly to add humanistic landscape elements on the basis of its own land resources and unique natural landscape, and transform it into wetland park, ecological park, urban park and other tourist attractions with educational significance while restoring ecology." Hu Youyi pointed out that the common problem of the current treatment and restoration of abandoned mines is that the restoration of abandoned mines requires a large amount of funds, and the mining enterprises after mining have no more sources of funds, and the government needs to formulate corresponding support and encouragement policies.

In fact, in recent years, the China Sandstone Association in terms of the mode of abandoned stone mine restoration, combined with the national development direction and enterprise practices, put forward the concept of "abandoned stone mine restoration +", for different abandoned stone mine areas and its surrounding environment, organisms, plants, etc., according to local conditions proposed restoration plans: In the south, turn it into a place with mountains, water, tourism, leisure and vacation; In the northeast, because the weather is relatively cold, you can add snow and ice; For the pit of the abandoned stone mine, it can be made into some deep pit hotels and so on. After the treatment of the abandoned mine, it can be used as a place for tourism, leisure and vacation, and even some tourist facilities can be added, including some off-road driving experience; In the south, where the climate is better, gardens and flower galleries can be made, and projects such as wine industry, tea industry, forestry, agriculture and even elderly care can be included in this ecological park.

Planning is the dragon. In order to ensure the smooth advancement of "development management" and realize the comprehensive treatment of abandoned mines, it is necessary to plan first, and the local government should incorporate the treatment of abandoned mines into the unified urban and rural planning and clarify the use after treatment.