The construction of green mines and the development of green mining is the only way for China's mining industry to achieve high-quality development

On July 24, 2021, the eighth National sand Aggregate Industry Science and Technology Conference was held, and CAI Meifeng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, attended the conference and delivered a speech. CAI Meifeng pointed out that while the sand industry has achieved great development in recent years, it is also facing outstanding problems such as the elimination of backward production capacity, weak quality assurance ability, unreasonable industrial structure, low level of green development, and insufficient extension of the industrial chain. To solve these problems, we still need to rely on scientific and technological innovation. CAI Meifeng said that the promotion and application of new technologies, new equipment and new standards in the sand and gravel industry should be accelerated to promote high-quality development. Adhere to green development, vigorously develop green mines and green mining, and form a national green mine construction and green mining development demonstration construction standard.

In the recently held China county mining green and high-quality development of 100 people Forum and Yellow River Jiziwan mining area ecological restoration and management seminar CAI Meifeng once again said that from the promotion of green mining construction and mine ecological restoration and management of two aspects, to achieve China's mining green high-quality development.

CAI Meifeng believes that following the material cycle law of the natural ecosystem, the mining development is harmoniously incorporated into the material cycle process of the natural ecosystem, and the development form of green ecological circular economy characterized by clean production, efficient resource recovery and waste recycling is formed. Especially in the whole process of mining, it is necessary not only to carry out scientific and orderly mining, but also to control the disturbance of the natural and ecological environment around the mining area within the scope allowed by the environment. Adopt green, intelligent mining methods that do not destroy the ecological environment, and realize the coordination and unification of mining production and environmental protection. At the same time, he said that to achieve the sustainable development of the mining industry, advanced and feasible technologies and methods must be adopted to repair and control the ecological environment of the mine.

1 Green mining construction must start from green mining

CAI Meifeng believes that the development of green mining and the construction of green mines must first start from green mining, and study mining and ecological environment as a large system. Not only the mineral resources are regarded as resources, but also the various elements of the ecological environment such as land, groundwater, vegetation, and atmosphere are regarded as important resources for utilization and protection.

At the beginning of mine construction, it is necessary to fully assess the impact and destruction of the environment and ecosystem that may be caused by mining. Through scientific design and the use of advanced technology, the impact and destruction of ecological environmental factors in the mining process should be reduced as much as possible, and the natural and ecological environment of the mining area should be protected from the source. It is necessary to effectively control the ground pressure activities of mines, maintain the stability of surface and underground rock formations, avoid and control the geological and dynamic disasters caused by mining, such as surface subsidence, mountain collapse, landslide, underground stope roof falling, rock burst, water inrush and so on, and the serious damage caused by them to the native vegetation, water resources and ecological environment system.

"Mining and mineral processing produce a lot of waste rock and tailings, which are persistent and serious sources of pollution." 'The precision cutting method used to mine the ore can reduce the output and discharge of waste rock,' Mr. CAI said. At the same time, the development of new beneficiation process and equipment, improve the recovery rate of beneficiation, thus greatly reducing the discharge of tailings. Minimizing the output and discharge of waste such as waste rock and tailings can shift the control of mine environmental pollution from the traditional end treatment to the source control.

Green mining focuses on the source and front-end. CAI Meifeng believes that the implementation of integrated mining and beneficiation technology, such as pulp transportation technology, the ore is crushed and ground into pulp after pre-beneficiation in the mine, and transported to the surface concentrator by pipeline hydraulic. Compared with other transportation schemes, it has a series of advantages such as low infrastructure investment, strong adaptability to terrain, and no or less land occupation, which is conducive to environmental protection technology. The concentrator is built in the mine, the mined ore is beneficiated underground, and then the concentrate is directly transported to the ground. The waste rock and tailings generated by the beneficiation are left in the mine for goaf filling, realizing in-situ utilization, and reducing the pollution and damage to the ecological environment after discharging from the ground. Moreover, underground mineral processing saves the cost of land acquisition, plant construction and tailings pond management, and eliminates the root cause of various natural disasters in tailings ponds. This is an important measure to give full play to the comprehensive benefits of the green and efficient development of mineral resources.