Protect mine geological environment and promote mine sustainable development

It is urgent to strengthen the legislation and formulate special provisions to solve the increasingly severe geological environment problems of mines in reality

Reporter: What are the considerations behind the Regulations?

Wang Shouzhi: The problems caused by mining activities in China, such as cave-in, groundwater drainage, and destruction of geological landform landscape, have seriously jeopardized the normal production and life of people in mining areas, and restricted the sustainable development of local economy and society. According to statistics, among the country's 113,108 mines, the goaf area is about 1.349 million hectares, accounting for 26% of the mining area; The land area occupied or destroyed by mining activities is 2.383 million hectares, accounting for 47% of the mining area; A total of 12,366 secondary geological disasters caused by mining caused direct economic losses of 16.63 billion yuan, casualties of about 4,250 people, facing a very severe geological environment situation.

The reasons for these problems mainly come from three aspects. First, the lack of special legislation on mine geological environment protection is only scattered in some provisions of relevant laws and regulations, and the lack of independent, unified and targeted laws, regulations or regulations to regulate it. Scattered regulations lead to the practice of pertinence and operation is not strong, the mine geological environment protection can not be relied on.

Secondly, mining development generally exists the phenomenon of "heavy development, light protection". Due to the lack of effective supervision means, responsibility system and special legislative norms, the owners of mining rights only attach importance to the exploitation of resources, and generally lack the awareness of protecting the geological environment of mines. The protection of mine geological environment is not taken as an important content in the design scheme of mineral resources exploitation. The management authorities have not taken the protection and restoration of the geological environment of mines as an important requirement for the owners of mining rights, resulting in great pressure on the protection of the geological environment of mines.

Third, the special funds for mine geological environment protection and restoration are insufficient. At present, the enterprise basically has no funds dedicated to protecting and restoring the mine geological environment, and the environmental cost generated by mining mineral resources has not been included in the production cost of the enterprise, resulting in the destruction of the mine geological environment, the enterprise has no special funds for governance.

The Notice of The State Council on Comprehensively Rectifying and standardizing the Order of Mineral Resources Development proposed to "Explore the establishment of a compensation system for the restoration of the ecological environment in Mines", and the Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the State Environmental Protection Administration on Gradually Establishing a Responsibility Mechanism for environmental Governance and ecological Restoration in Mines proposed that "enterprises should open deposit accounts in banks designated by local financial departments. And use the funds according to regulations." Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the legislation and formulate special provisions to solve the increasingly severe geological environment problems of mines in reality.

Reporter: How to define the scope of application of the Provisions?

Wang Shouzhi: The definition of this scope is a difficult point in the formulation process. In view of the particularity of mine geological environment protection work and the specificity of the causes of mine geological environment problems, after repeated research, we have determined that its scope of application is: the prevention, treatment and restoration of mining ground collapse, ground cracks, collapses, landslides, aquifer damage, and topographical landscape damage caused by mineral resources exploration and mining activities. At the same time, considering that in the process of practical operation, the restoration and management of mine geological environment may involve the management of "three wastes" and land reclamation, in order to avoid cross-functional problems, "three wastes" management and land reclamation are excluded from the scope of application. Thus, it is clearly stipulated that the exploitation of mineral resources involves land reclamation, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of the State land reclamation implementation.

Mining geological environment protection, adhere to the principle of prevention first, prevention combined, who develops who protects, who destroys who governance, who invests who benefits

Reporter: What provisions are made on the responsibility, rights and benefits of protecting the geological environment of mines?

Wang Shouzhi: It can be summarized in 26 words, that is, prevention is the first, prevention and control is combined, who develops who protects, who destroys who governs, who invests who benefits. To be specific, the main means of prevention is planning. The administrative departments of land and resources at all levels shall be responsible for the investigation and evaluation of the geological environment of mines in their respective administrative areas, and formulate the geological environment protection plan of mines accordingly. The planning for geological environment protection of mines shall conform to the planning for mineral resources and be coordinated with the overall planning for land use and the planning for prevention and control of geological disasters.

In order to promote the owners of mining rights to enhance the awareness of protecting the geological environment, the applicants for mining rights should prepare a plan for the protection and restoration of the mining geological environment when applying for a mining license. The mining right owner shall pay the deposit for the restoration of the mining geological environment in accordance with the mine geological environment protection and rehabilitation plan. If the mining area, mineral species or mining method is changed, the mining right owner shall pay the deposit for the restoration of the mining environment in accordance with the standard after the change. The owners of mining rights shall strictly implement the approved plans for the protection and treatment of the geological environment in mines. Where the mining of mineral resources causes damage to the geological environment of the mine, the owner of the mining right shall be responsible for restoring it, and fulfill the obligation of restoring the geological environment of the mine before the closure of the mine. If the mining right is transferred, the obligation shall be transferred simultaneously. After the restoration of the geological environment of mines, the state encourages the development of mining sites with ornamental value and scientific research value into mining parks. If the owner of the prospecting right does not apply for the mining right after the completion of the mineral resources exploration activities, he or she shall take corresponding measures to restore the mining right and eliminate potential safety hazards.

The administrative departments of land and resources at or above the county level shall be responsible for the supervision and inspection of the implementation of the obligation of rehabilitation and restoration by the mining rights holders, and shall establish a monitoring system for the geological environment of mines within their respective administrative areas and report it to them on a regular basis. The administrative departments of land and resources at or above the county level shall have the right to carry out on-site inspections on the implementation of the plans for the protection, treatment and restoration of the geological environment of mines and the monitoring of the geological environment of mines.

It should be said that the responsibility, rights and benefits are more clear and unified, which is more conducive to the protection of mine geological environment.