How to restore the geological environment of mine?

In recent years, with the deepening of ecological civilization construction, the ecological restoration of mine geological environment has become a hot spot of the whole society. In particular, in order to speed up the solution of problems left over from the history of mining geological environment, the relevant ministries and commissions of the State proposed to "encourage the participation of social funds, and vigorously explore the construction of a new model of" government-led, policy support, social participation, development-oriented governance, and market-oriented operation "of mining geological environment restoration and comprehensive management. The new model of mine geological environment management with "development management" as the core has been emerging, which has promoted the solution of the problems left over from the history of mine geological environment to a large extent, but it has also exposed some problems, especially the legal risks.

So, how can the ecological restoration of the geological environment of mines, especially the road of "development management", be safer and more secure and achieve twice the effect with half the effort? And how to avoid the risk from the legal level? China Mining News reporter recently interviewed Shen Sheng, a partner of Beijing Yuren Law Firm specializing in legal research in the field of natural resources and director of the Mining Law Research Center, in order to crack the misunderstandings and risks of "development governance" from the legal level.

Mr. Shen is a researcher of the Land and Resources Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, a tutor of graduate law students (including undergraduates) of China University of Geosciences, a director of the Mineral Resources Law Branch of China Society of Geological and Mineral Economics, and a reviewer of Land and Resources Information. He is especially good at dealing with difficult legal issues of mining, and has issued legal opinions for a number of mining administration projects of the former Ministry of Land and Resources. And participated in the completion of the Supreme People's Court, the former Ministry of Land and Resources, the National Energy Administration of a number of legislative proposals and research projects, the author of "Mining Legal Counsel", "Mining contract Management", "Mining rights Transfer Legal Practice", "Mining Typical case Analysis" and other books.

China Mining News: No rules can not be accomplished. In recent years, what policies and regulations have the state mainly introduced for the restoration of the geological environment of mines?

Shen Sheng: In recent years, with the promotion of ecological civilization construction, the state and relevant ministries have successively issued a series of policies and regulations on the restoration of mining geological environment.

First, The State Council issued the Notice of The State Council on Comprehensively Rectifying and standardizing the Order of Mineral Resources Development (Guofa [2005] No. 28), pointing out that it is necessary to explore the establishment of a compensation system for the restoration of the ecological environment in mines and clarify the responsibility for governance.

Second, the former State Environmental Protection Administration issued the "Mining ecological environmental Protection and pollution prevention and control technology Policy" (Huanfa (2005) No. 109).

Third, the Ministry of Finance, the former Ministry of Land and Resources, and the former State Environmental Protection Administration jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Gradually Establishing the Responsibility Mechanism for environmental Management and Ecological Restoration in Mines (Caijian [2006] No. 215), requiring the formulation of ecological environmental protection and comprehensive management plans for mines, and proposing specific measures to achieve the goals of environmental management and ecological restoration in mines.

Fourth, the former Ministry of Land and Resources issued the Regulations on the Protection of the Geological Environment in Mines (Ministry of Land and Resources 2009 No. 44), pointing out that it is necessary to prepare the protection and restoration of the geological environment in mines, and carry out the prevention and restoration work of ground collapse, ground cracks, collapses, landslides, aquifer damage, and topographic and geomorphic landscape damage in mining areas.

Fifth, the former Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Environmental Protection" (Guofa [2011] No. 42), pointing out that it is necessary to strengthen the ecological supervision of mineral, hydropower, tourism resources development and transportation infrastructure construction, and implement the responsibility of relevant enterprises in ecological protection and restoration.

Sixth, The General Office of the State Council issued "Opinions on Improving the Compensation Mechanism for Ecological Protection" (State Council [2016] 31, May 13, 2016)

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".

The content of the comprehensive treatment plan is that the solid waste such as slag, coal gangue and surrounding rock should be formulated for storage, treatment and reuse. The main point of the comprehensive treatment plan of open-pit mining is that the best storage plan of solid waste such as slag and surrounding rock should be formulated before mining, and attention should be paid to the rational utilization of available beneficial components.

At present, the more popular and social attention is relatively high "development governance", mainly involving safety, ecology and resource utilization of three standards, mine environmental governance must not only meet the safety standards and ecological standards, but also take into account the reuse of resources, that is, after management to use it to develop leisure parks, orchards, woodland or construction land, in order to give full play to its resource efficiency. The main obstacle to the current development of "development governance" is the lack of implementation rules, the former Ministry of Land and Resources and other departments of the opinion No. 63 is only a guiding document, but in the actual application of the need for clearer, more detailed norms.

At present, the most sensitive issue is the comprehensive utilization of resources in the "development governance". The comprehensive utilization of resources is defined as: the comprehensive development and rational utilization of symbiotic and associated ore in the process of mineral resources exploitation; Recycling and rational utilization of waste residue, waste water (liquid), waste gas, heat and pressure generated in the production process; Recovery and recycling of all kinds of waste generated in the process of social production and consumption; For the solid waste generated in the process of mineral resources development, the principle of treatment is to make the best use of what can be used and dispose of what can not be used reasonably.

Strictly speaking, although the current concept of comprehensive utilization of resources reflects some characteristics of comprehensive utilization of resources, with the continuous progress of society, from today's perspective, there are still some limitations in the content of this definition, which needs to be re-recognized and expressed under new historical conditions. Resource utilization is not only limited to industrial production process, but also needs to consider the comprehensive utilization of resources under all the conditions of resource utilization. In the process of mineral resources development, it is not only limited to the comprehensive development and rational utilization of symbiotic and associated ore, but also includes the comprehensive utilization of tailings resources.

Adhering to the comprehensive utilization of resources is in line with the thought of the 18th and 19th National Congresses of the Communist Party of China that "we must establish the concept of respecting, adapting to and protecting nature as an ecological civilization". Comprehensive utilization of resources is an objective description of the way of resource utilization, which reflects the respect for the objective reality of resource utilization. This statement shows that people use resources in a variety of ways, not rigid, dogmatic, static. The concept of comprehensive utilization of resources is put forward from the Angle of resource efficiency and economic benefit, which is consistent with the law of market and economic law, and considers the maximization of resource utilization efficiency.

On January 17, 2019, the National Natural Resources Work Conference pointed out when clarifying the key work in 2019, "Ensuring energy and resources security." We will take multiple measures to intensify oil and gas exploration and development, improve the protection and comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, and strengthen geological survey and mineral exploration."

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward five development concepts, namely innovation, coordination, green development, opening up and sharing. The report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further stressed that "we must unswervingly implement the concept of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development." Comprehensive utilization of resources is closely related to these five development concepts. First, on innovation. Comprehensive utilization of resources is always based on technological innovation, it can be said that without technological innovation, there will be no development of comprehensive utilization of resources, or even no basis for existence. Secondly, on coordination. The meaning of "comprehensive" in the comprehensive utilization of resources is closely related to coordination. Synthesis means to systematically consider all kinds of resource utilization methods, while coordination means to rationally allocate all kinds of resource utilization methods. Both comprehensive utilization and coordinated utilization of resources are to consider the utilization of resources from a global perspective. Third, about green. The concept of green development requires the protection of the ecological environment system and the harmonious coexistence between the guarantor and nature, which is an inevitable requirement for the construction of ecological civilization. While emphasizing economic benefits, comprehensive utilization of resources must consider environmental benefits, otherwise it is impossible to maximize the efficiency of resource utilization. Fourth, on openness. Comprehensive utilization of resources truly, objectively and accurately reflects the law of resource utilization, and is consistent with the thinking and actions of rational and efficient utilization of resources in the world. Fifth, about sharing. The concept of resource comprehensive utilization and sharing is closely related: through the comprehensive utilization of resources to realize resource sharing; Use the means of comprehensive utilization of resources to realize the sharing of economic benefits, environmental benefits and social benefits of resource utilization.

China Mining News: In the "development management" of geological environment ecological restoration of mines, how to deal with residual ore?

Shen Sheng: The former Ministry of Land and Resources and other five ministries and commissions (2016) No. 63 pointed out that it is necessary to adhere to the concept of innovative development and break the institutional barriers of investment, policy, scientific research and other mechanisms for the restoration and comprehensive management of mining geological environment. We will innovate policies for the redevelopment of residual tailings mines, the reclamation and utilization of abandoned mining land, and the transfer and utilization of collective land, guide the investment of social funds, resources, and asset elements, actively explore the use of PPP models and third-party governance methods, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, and accelerate governance. We will strengthen the comprehensive utilization of resources. Promote the comprehensive utilization of tailings and waste rock, with the focus on extracting valuable components from tailings and waste rock, producing high value-added building materials, filling, and harmless agricultural and ecological applications, accelerate the promotion and application of advanced and applicable technologies and equipment, organize the implementation of comprehensive utilization demonstration projects of tailings and waste rock, constantly increase the proportion of comprehensive utilization of tailings and waste rock, and expand the scale of comprehensive utilization industry. Reduce the impact on the ecological environment. At the same time, we will 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 a new model of mining geological environment restoration and comprehensive management of "government-led, policy support, social participation, development-type governance, and market-oriented operation".

In strengthening policy support, it is pointed out that the mineral resources development policy should be improved. Under the premise of meeting the planning and ensuring safety, the stock resources shall be developed according to law to provide financial guarantee for regional comprehensive governance. Accelerate the construction of green mining development demonstration zones and green mines, and promote the coordinated development of mineral resources development and ecological environmental protection.

Before the mine geological environment treatment, the mine situation is mainly divided into three kinds: first, the mine is closed normally, and the ore body has been mined; Second, the mine is closed abnormally, and there are still residual ore bodies, especially those forced to close due to safety factors or environmental protection requirements; Third, there are some residual ore bodies in abandoned mines. If the scope of mine geological environment restoration is within the scope of design control, it is not illegal mining. If the scope of mine geological environment restoration is outside the scope of design control, and ore is extracted, it is illegal mining.

For the exploitation of residual ore in the "development management", from the legal sense, there is no need to apply for mining certificate, but to prevent the development of new mines. The main basis includes:

First, mine ecological restoration is not mineral development, closing the mine is a trade-off made after the balance between environmental protection and development, and for ecological restoration to require mining certificates is contrary to the original intention of closing the mine due to environmental protection.

Second, the treatment of residual ore within the scope of treatment belongs to the comprehensive utilization of resources under the concept of development of the new period in the restoration process, and should not require mining certificates. The Opinions of the Ministry of Land and Resources on Promoting the Comprehensive Conservation and Efficient use of Mineral Resources (Land Resources Development (2016) No. 187) clearly states that the priority is to adhere to protection. In the development of mineral resources and the protection of the ecological environment, we firmly adhere to the concept of "protection is conservation", give priority to protection, adhere to the development in protection and protection in development, and support sustainable economic and social development with the least consumption of mineral resources. Adhere to efficient use. In the exploration and development of mineral resources, firmly adhere to the concept of "efficient use is conservation", carry out comprehensive exploration, comprehensive evaluation, comprehensive exploitation and comprehensive utilization of associated mineral resources, promote high-quality and optimal use, cascade utilization and recycling, and promote the resource utilization of waste rock and other wastes, so as to improve the comprehensive benefits of resources, economy and ecology. Promote comprehensive utilization. Actively cooperate with relevant departments to formulate policies, on the premise of safety and environmental protection, waste rock, gangue and other waste generated from mining and recycling, through the extraction of useful components, production of building materials, processing into new materials, underground filling and other ways, to improve resources, economic and ecological benefits.

Third, it is required to apply for the mining certificate is not practical, the mining certificate requires cumbersome procedures and a long period of time, and can not achieve the purpose of mine restoration, according to the requirements of the "mining rights transfer system reform plan", in a competitive way to transfer.

On June 24, 2018, The State Council issued the Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Ecological Environmental Protection and Resolutely Fighting the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control, which made deployment arrangements for comprehensively strengthening ecological environmental protection and resolutely fighting the battle of pollution prevention and control, and also provided policy support for social capital to enter the field of mining geological environment management.

China Mining News: How to prevent legal risks when social capital participates in the restoration of geological environment in mines?

Shen Sheng: First, we should do a good job of due diligence in the early stage. It is necessary to understand the basic situation of the restoration mine (normal closure, abnormal closure, abandonment, etc.), the scope of treatment, the duration of treatment, the establishment of the project, the source of project funds, the difficulty and ease of site construction, and formulate different precautions under different circumstances; The second is to communicate with mine restoration and construction units in different situations and fix possible disputes in written form; Third, the clear definition of the scope of governance (design scheme, design drawings, and change processing); Fourth, the treatment and income distribution of the residual ore body and the comprehensive utilization of useful resources in the treatment project; Fifth, pay attention to the drafting of contract terms and the formulation of relevant legal documents, and the fixing, collection, sorting and preservation of relevant evidence involved in the project; The sixth is to hire professional lawyers to escort the whole process.