How to restore the geological environment of mine?

Seventh, the former Ministry of Land and Resources and other five ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Guidance on Strengthening the Restoration and comprehensive management of the Geological Environment of Mines" (Land Resources Development (2016) No. 63, July 1, 2016), requiring the acceleration of the settlement of historical problems left over from the geological environment of mines, encouraging the participation of social funds, 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.

Eight, the National Development and Reform Commission and nine other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan to Establish a market-oriented and diversified ecological protection compensation Mechanism" (Development and Reform of the West [2018] No. 1960, December 28, 2018), pointing out that the boundary and total amount of resource development should be reasonably defined to ensure that the ecosystem function is not affected.

China Mining News: As a systematic project, mining geological environment ecological restoration has large investment and slow return, so the national level proposes to implement market-oriented operation. So, what are the specific policies of the state in terms of marketization?

Shen Sheng: First, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "strengthen the protection of the ecosystem and establish a market-oriented and diversified ecological compensation mechanism."

Second, The General Office of the State Council issued the Notice on the Recent Work Arrangements for Soil Environmental Protection and comprehensive Management (2013), proposing the principle of "who invests, who benefits" to guide and encourage social funds to invest in soil environmental protection and comprehensive management.

Third, the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform (2013) proposed the establishment of a market-oriented mechanism for ecological and environmental protection and the implementation of third-party environmental pollution control.

Fourth, The General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on the Implementation of Third-party Governance of Environmental Pollution (2014), which clarified the market-oriented, professional and industrial-oriented third-party governance mechanism.

Fifth, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Administrative Measures for Government Purchase of Services (Interim)" (2015), including "environmental governance" services in the guidance directory of government procurement.

Sixth, the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization (2015), the Action Plan for Water Pollution Prevention and Control (2015), the Action Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control (2016), and the Plan for Wetland Protection and Restoration System (2016) issued by The State Council, The Implementation Opinions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection on Promoting the Third-party Governance of Environmental Pollution (2017) issued by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection clearly proposed to promote the market-oriented mechanism of third-party governance of environmental pollution and promote the development of governance and restoration industries. For wetland restoration with clear responsibility subjects, it can be carried out by itself, or it can be commissioned to repair third-party institutions with restoration capabilities.

The market-oriented positioning of ecological restoration in national policy documents, on the one hand, reflects the grim reality of ecological environmental damage, and on the other hand shows the determination of the state to promote the restoration of the damaged ecological environment. As a new type of environmental governance, the marketization of ecological restoration has been clearly defined in national laws and policies, and the operation mode of "government-enterprise cooperation" and "enterprise-enterprise cooperation" has been shown in practice.

China Mining News: How to realize the comprehensive utilization of resources in the restoration of geological environment and ecology in mines?

Shen Sheng: The main tasks of mine geological environment protection and management include: ecological environment protection for mine development and construction, "three wastes" treatment for mine development and utilization, mine land reclamation, mine environmental pollution and ecological damage control, and mine secondary geological disaster monitoring and prevention.

The principles of mining geological environment restoration and land reclamation are to adhere to the principles of "prevention first, prevention and control combined", "development in protection, protection in development", "scientific planning, local conditions, comprehensive management, economic feasibility and reasonable utilization".