The long-awaited national standard for green mine construction in China’s mining industry will soon be promulgated and implemented. Reporters from the China Mining News learned at the 2017 Working Conference of the Sub-Technical Committee on Standardization for the Economical and Intensive Utilization of Mineral Resources, held from December 17 to 18 in Zhengzhou, that the standard specifications for green mine construction in nine sectors—including coal and nonferrous metals—have passed technical review and are expected to be promulgated and implemented next year.

　　Since the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Guiding Opinions on Implementing the National Mineral Resources Plan, Developing Green Mining, and Building Green Mines" in 2010, the pace of green mine development in China has significantly accelerated. To date, a total of 661 mining enterprises across four batches have been designated as national-level pilot units for green mines. Through several years of exploration and practice, these pilot units have essentially established green mine development models that are tailored to their own specific characteristics and the unique features of the regions where they operate, providing valuable examples for mining enterprises nationwide seeking to embark on green mine development. However, overall, green mine development still lacks unified standards and norms. The proportion of national-level pilot green mine units remains relatively small, and the existing standards vary considerably. There is an urgent need to establish a standardized system to regulate and guide the entire mining industry in accelerating the construction of green mines nationwide.

　　To further implement the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Green Mines," jointly issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and five other national departments, and to strive for basically establishing a green-mine framework by 2020, the Ministry of Natural Resources, building on the earlier pilot units at the national level, is accelerating the development of a standardized system for green mines and has initiated the drafting of green-mine construction specifications by industry sector.

　　It is understood that the national standards for green mine construction reviewed this time cover nine major industries, including coal, metallurgy, nonferrous metals, gold, chemical industry, non-metallic minerals, sand and gravel, cement, and onshore oil and gas extraction. The standards primarily specify requirements in the following areas: "basic requirements for green mine construction, mine environmental protection, methods of resource exploration and utilization, comprehensive resource utilization, energy conservation and emission reduction, scientific and technological innovation and digital mines, as well as enterprise management and corporate image."

　　Feng Ansheng, Chairman of the Subtechnical Committee on Standardization for the Economical and Intensive Utilization of Mineral Resources and Director of the Zhengzhou Comprehensive Research Institute of the China Geological Survey, stated that the draft standards for green mine construction across various industries submitted for review this time are comprehensive in content and well-founded, basically meeting the technical requirements. After further revisions and improvements based on the feedback from the Subtechnical Committee and subsequent submission to the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Land and Resources for review, these standards will be promulgated and implemented. At that time, China’s green mine construction will have a “legal” basis to follow.

　　This meeting also reviewed documents such as the “Standard Procedures for Closing Solid Non-Energy Mines” and the “Standard Practices for Process Mineralogy of Solid Non-Energy Minerals.”