The main problems and solutions of mine ecological restoration

China is a big country in the development and utilization of mineral resources. According to the "China Mineral Resources Report 2020", China ranks first in the world in the production and consumption of primary energy, crude steel, 10 non-ferrous metals, gold and cement in the mining industry. The exploitation of mineral resources not only provides a solid resource guarantee for the national economic development, but also brings unprecedented severe ecological environment problems to the mine and the region. On the one hand, the surface land resources will be disturbed and damaged along with mining, such as excavation loss, compression, collapse, etc. On the other hand, the discharge of a large number of harmful substances such as waste gas, waste water and waste residue pollutes the air, water and soil of the mining area, which leads to the decline of regional ecological environment quality. In recent years, Huolinhe coal mine ecological environment inspection incident, Qilian Mountain series of ecological environment destruction and other similar incidents have been exposed, further highlighting the serious ecological environment problems in mining areas.

 Among them, the mine ecological restoration is difficult, which is the key and difficult point of ecological restoration and management. While the ecological damage problems in Qilian Mountain mining area and Muli mining area in Qinghai Province have received widespread attention, people have fully realized that man and nature are a community of life, "to build a solid ecological safety barrier", and the ecological restoration work in mines is imminent.

China has been carrying out mine ecological restoration since the 20th century, but due to the influence of many factors such as historical debts, imperfect laws and regulations, strip management and insufficient technological research and development, the gap of mine ecological restoration is still very large. According to the statistics of remote sensing monitoring data, the area of newly restored mines in 2019 is about 480 km2. Among them, the newly restored area of mines under construction and production is about 192 km2, accounting for 40.05%; The newly restored area of abandoned mines is about 288 km2, accounting for 59.95%. According to the 2020 Coal Industry Development Report, the land reclamation rate in 2020 is about 57%. While paying extensive attention to the ecological restoration of mines with historical debts, more than 10,000 km2 of newly damaged land is added every year. Therefore, it is necessary to scientifically clarify the main problems in the field of mine ecological restoration and seek scientific solutions.

1, the main problems facing mine ecological restoration in China

At present, there are many problems in the field of mine ecological restoration in China, and the following are mainly analyzed from four aspects.

1.1 Noun appellation of related concepts

The term "mine ecological restoration" has been widely adopted in recent years and is also a noun adopted in documents issued at the national level after the establishment of the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2018. China's mine ecological restoration has been carried out for nearly half a century, as early as the 1980s, China began to organize the "comprehensive treatment of coal mining subsidence" (the former Ministry of Coal industry "Six Five" scientific and technological research project (1983-1986)), the State Land Administration and the State Environmental Protection Bureau attach great importance to the "land reclamation" of mining areas.

In different stages of development, different administrative departments, different research fields and industries, there are many concepts related to mine ecological restoration, such as land reclamation, mine geological environment restoration and management, coal mining subsidence management, land reclamation and ecological reconstruction, land reclamation and ecological restoration, mine restoration and so on.

1.1.1 "land reclamation" is not merely the restoration of cultivated land

"Land reclamation" is the earliest special term determined in the field of mine ecological restoration in China (effective on January 1, 1989, see "Land reclamation Provisions"). Later, this provision was upgraded to the "Land Reclamation Regulations", which clearly stipulates that land reclamation refers to the production and construction activities and natural disasters damaged land, take measures to make it available for use.

From the land reclamation regulations to the land reclamation regulations, there is no requirement to restore the damaged land into "cultivated land", but to "adapt to local conditions" to "reach a state of utilization". Due to the principle of priority of cultivated land in the implementation process, many people mistakenly believe that land reclamation is the restoration of cultivated land. Therefore, there is now a voice of "if it is not the restoration of cultivated land, it is not land reclamation", which is to narrow the concept of land reclamation; There is also a view that land reclamation does not pay attention to vegetation restoration and is not ecological. This is also the reason why the words "land reclamation and ecological reconstruction" and "land reclamation and ecological restoration" appear.