Mine rehabilitation

The parallel exploitation of mineral resources and ecological restoration and management of mining areas is an inevitable requirement of the concept of "ecological priority and green development". Under the guidance of the concept of green development and relying on the spirit of hard work and scientific management, many mines and mining areas in our country are repairing one piece after another of the "scars on the earth", so that the former waste water and mountains have become green mountains.

Recently, Inner Mongolia Erdos City Yijin Horo Banner Wulan Mulun town Tianjiao green energy 500,000 kw coal mining subsidence area ecological governance photovoltaic power generation demonstration project connected to the grid. The implementation of this project provides a new reference for the development of new energy industry, the construction of green mines and the comprehensive development of ecological restoration and management in coal mining subsidence areas in the Yellow River basin.

The parallel exploitation of mineral resources and ecological restoration and management of mining areas is an inevitable requirement of the concept of "ecological priority and green development". Science and Technology Daily reporters visited many places in China and found that the management of mining areas in these areas has achieved remarkable results, and the highlights of ecological restoration are frequent. With the unswerving concept of green development, the spirit of hard work and scientific governance, we are repairing one piece after another "scars on the earth", and the barren mountains of waste water in the past are turning into green mountains.

Work hard, dig out the black and leave the green

In Habahe County, Alatai region, Xinjiang, Ashele Copper Co., Ltd. planted 270,000 trees of various types for the Ashele mining area covered with green clothing, the reporter learned here that since the construction of the mining area began in 2002, the annual spring and autumn tree-planting activities have never been interrupted, this persistence, making the mining area green rate reached 70% today. At the same time, the mining area has also implemented the tailings water utilization project, the domestic sewage purification and pumping, for production water and mining area greening irrigation, to achieve zero discharge of production and domestic wastewater, mine environmental protection management has reached the leading level in China.

Located in Inner Mongolia, the national energy Group Shendong Coal Group Company (hereinafter referred to as Shendong Group) is the only modern energy enterprise in China that delivers 200 million tons of high-quality coal to the country every year. The person in charge of the company introduced: "The 36 years of the establishment of the enterprise is not only the 36 years of building a safe, efficient and modern smart coal base, but also the 36 years of building a green coal base for soil and water conservation, environmental protection and land reclamation; Practice has proved that with firm will and hard work, the ecological environment can be fundamentally improved, and a barren mine can become a green treasure house."

In fact, more than 30 years ago, Shendong Group, while exploiting resources, has already rooted the concept of environmental protection and ecological restoration into the development of enterprises. According to the memories of many old employees of Shendong Group, at that time, we started from the mobile sand area around the mining area, and used the combination of grid sand fixation and irrigation cultivation to fix and control sand. Since 1994, Shendong Group has taken a combination of engineering measures and biological measures to carry out comprehensive soil and water conservation management in small watersheds around the mining area, and the first battle was launched in the Red stone Circle, which was the most serious soil erosion at that time. The workers put up tents on the mountain, slept in the open, and launched a "decisive battle" with the sand area, laying the foundation for today's beautiful "Red stone Circle" in the deep forest.

Wu Jiazheng, an employee of Shendong Group who has 30 years of experience in mining area greening, said: "At that time, the mining area needed a lot of seedlings for afforestation, the supply force around the mining area was insufficient, and the cost of outsourcing was too high, so the group finally decided to grow seedlings by itself." Hard work pays off, in a few years, the group's nursery has cultivated more than 2 million saplings for the mining area. Until today, the nursery is still cultivating seedlings for Shendong Group, which has made a significant contribution to the environmental protection cause of the mining area.

Today, from "a tree" to "a forest", it embodies the firm will of several generations of "Shendong people". The vegetation coverage rate of the mining area of Shendong Group has increased from 3%-11% at the beginning of development to 64% at present, and the ecological control area of the mining area has reached 384 square kilometers.

Hard work and hard work, digging out the black, leaving the green, has become an iron concept of modern mining development.

Keep trying, want to green also want to develop

In recent years, with the continuous improvement and innovation of the concept of green development, China's new attempts, new explorations and new experiences in mining area restoration and mine ecological management are endless.

On September 15, the "Muli Mining area ecological environment comprehensive treatment project (Section 1) Grass restoration Project" (hereinafter referred to as Muli Mining area restoration Project) undertaken by the China Coal Geology Administration (hereinafter referred to as the China Coal Geology Administration) passed the provincial inspection and acceptance of Qinghai Province.

Zhang Jiabao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and researcher of the Nanjing Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with the media: "The ecological restoration of Muli mining area is the first demonstration project of large-scale mine management in China at present in the plateau, high cold and high altitude area. There is no successful experience and mature model at home and abroad for reference, which has strong exploration and experimental significance. It is not only an exploration in China, but also an exploration in the world." The quest proved to be a complete success.

The inspection group believes that the quality of the green restoration project in Muli mining area is good, especially the key indicators of the number of seedlings, coverage and plant height are better than the acceptance standard, and the seedling growth is good, and the expected results have been achieved.

According to the relevant person in charge of the General Bureau of Coal Geology, the ecological management project of the mining area follows the concept of "integrated management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grasses", and achieved the goal of "two years to see the green image" one year in advance, creating new achievements in the ecological environment management of plateau and cold areas and accumulating new experience.

Mining area management should be green, but also development. In the Inner Mongolia Ordos Tianjiao green energy 500 thousand kilowatts of coal mining subsidence area ecological control photovoltaic power generation demonstration project site, the reporter saw that 20,000 acres of contiguous photovoltaic panels endless, spectacular.

Unlike other projects, this PV project is a PV + industry developed after high-standard ecological restoration in the coal mining subsidence area. With the launch of the project, while contributing 900 million KWH of clean electricity to the country every year, this coal mining subsidence area will be completely transformed into a smart photovoltaic garden complex.

The reporter was informed that the project in 42,000 mu of coal mining subsidence area land on the basis of high standard ecological restoration, the photovoltaic module is arranged above the ground with a bracket, the lower layer is used for agriculture and forestry planting, aquaculture, the upper layer is used for solar power generation, play the forest light complementary, agricultural light complementary, fishing light complementary, dual-use characteristics. And supporting the development of agricultural tourism, special fruits and vegetables and other tourism industries.

Ding Xiangfei, head of the project site, said: "With the concept of green development, this project has created a new development direction for ecological restoration and governance, achieved the integrated development of the first, second and third industries, and also carried out a pilot exploration for the future green energy replacement."

Technology blessing, a "navigation" for ecological restoration

In recent years, new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, automation and robots have brought new opportunities and paths for mining production and ecological restoration in mining areas.

According to the "Ecological Restoration Work Plan of Abandoned Open-pit Mines Based on Mining Big Data and Remote Sensing Information" of the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2019, it is necessary to use big data to comprehensively rectify the ecological and environmental damage problems of abandoned open-pit mines (including mining sites) along the Yangtze River main stream and main tributaries. By the end of 2020, the treatment of abandoned open-pit mines within 10 kilometers of each bank of the main stream of the Yangtze River and its main tributaries has been completed. Facts are gradually verifying the subversion and reshaping of the resource governance system, including mine ecological restoration, by big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

The open pit mine in Inner Mongolia Jalainur is a typical representative of northern mining area. After hundreds of years of exploitation, the land in the mine is barren and degraded, and the area of soil and water loss has increased continuously. Today, the century-old mine is tree-lined and completely covered with native grasses.

"The ecological restoration of Jalainur open pit mine is a typical case in which we use modern technical means to repair and control the mining area. The mine ecological big data platform uses advanced technologies such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and remote sensing to guide the fine restoration of the mine. It provides whole-life cycle process management for exploration, planning and design, geological disaster control, ecological restoration project implementation and conservation." He Yong, head of mining business of Inner Mongolia Mengcao Ecological Environment (Group) Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Mengcao Group).

On the page of Mengcao Group's ecological big data platform, the basic situation of mines in the country is clear at a glance. Through the data platform, you can query the distribution information of more than 60,000 mines in the country. Click on the point to view the longitude and latitude location of the current mine, the district and county to which it belongs, the type of mineral, the type of soil, meteorological information and the information of suitable vegetation.

He Yong said that the ecological environment restoration of mines has the characteristics of comprehensiveness, complexity, professionalism and innovation. At present, there are more than 20 kinds of mine geological disasters in the northern region, including geomorphic landscape damage, underground aquifer damage, land resource occupation and destruction, etc. To complete a comprehensive mine restoration project requires multidisciplinary knowledge and technical support such as geotechnical engineering, geology, biology, soil science and soil and water conservation.

Facts have proved that China's big data platform has been able to provide relatively complete solutions covering planning and design, product technology research and development, plant matching, engineering construction of systematic mine restoration and environmental governance, so that mine restoration is no longer difficult.