China is a major mining country. Over the long term, large-scale and intensive exploitation of mineral resources has made tremendous contributions to the nation’s construction and development. At the same time, however, due to neglecting environmental impacts—or even, to some extent, sacrificing the environment in the process—this has led to severe ecological damage and even ecological imbalances. As China implements its strategic plan for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, continues to advance industrialization, and accelerates urbanization, demand for resources will keep rising, thereby intensifying the contradictions between resource supply and demand and increasing environmental pressures. The only correct strategy is to develop a circular economy and build a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly society. Under these circumstances, it is imperative to pay sufficient attention to environmental issues arising from mineral resource development and their impact on the country’s economic and social development.
I. Current Status and Characteristics of Environmental Issues in China’s Mineral Resource Development
China faces numerous and complex environmental issues related to mining. Based on the nature of these problems, they can be categorized into: “three-waste” issues, ground deformation issues, conflicts among mine drainage (or sudden water bursts), water supply, and ecological protection, as well as issues such as desertification and soil erosion. In recent years, environmental problems arising from mineral resource development in China have exhibited the following characteristics:
1. The overall trend of deteriorating ecological environment in China has yet to be reversed, and environmental issues in mineral resource development remain prominent.
The complexity of China’s current ecological and environmental challenges is unprecedented in the history of any nation. Since the 1980s, China has adopted environmental protection as a fundamental national policy, and in the early 1990s, it articulated a basic strategy for sustainable development. As a result, efforts to prevent pollution and restore the environment have been intensified, and active measures have been taken to rehabilitate and rebuild damaged ecosystems. However, due to the dramatic expansion in the production and consumption of mineral resources, the outdated, resource-intensive development model has yet to be fundamentally reversed. Coupled with substantial historical debts, the overall state of our ecology and environment has not undergone a fundamental transformation and remains characterized by localized improvements accompanied by overall deterioration.
In 2003, China's sulfur dioxide emissions reached 21.2 million tons, ranking first in the world. The area affected by acid rain accounted for 30% of the country's land area, and the trend of acid rain pollution was worsening. In the Pingsiang region of Jiangxi Province—the area with the lowest pH value—acid rain reached a minimum pH of 3.67. Carbon emissions from coal combustion and cement production exceeded 1 billion tons, placing China second in the world after the United States. Each year, wastewater discharged from mining activities accounts for 10% of the nation's total industrial wastewater volume. The solid waste generated from the mining and beneficiation of coal, iron, and nonferrous metals amounts to approximately 800 million tons, representing about 85% of the nation's total industrial solid waste. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the cumulative total of waste rock, tailings, coal gangue, and fly ash has exceeded 22.5 billion tons. Groundwater resources have been severely damaged; annually, Chinese coal mines discharge more than 2.2 billion tons of mine water, of which fewer than 20% are treated and reused. According to the “National Survey on Ecological Damage and Rehabilitation of Mining Areas” conducted from 1995 to 1996, among the 1,173 medium-sized and larger mines surveyed, the total area of land damaged amounted to approximately 750,000 hectares. Nationwide, land damaged by coal mining and subsequent subsidence totaled roughly 720,000 hectares.

2. The inefficiency in resource development and utilization is the primary cause of ecological damage and environmental pollution.

On the one hand, China faces a shortage of resources; on the other hand, there is serious waste in the exploration and utilization of these resources. While the recovery rates of large mines are generally comparable to those in developed countries, China has a large proportion of small mines. Driven by profit motives, local protectionism, an imperfect mining-entry system, outdated technology, and lax management, most individual and small-scale mines tend to exploit rich deposits while neglecting poorer ones, engaging in indiscriminate and excessive mining. This has led to severe damage and waste of mineral resources, with particularly acute environmental problems in mining areas.

Coal mines accounting for more than 90% of the nation’s total number and producing over 10% of the country’s output have resource recovery rates as low as 10–15%. The national average comprehensive recovery rate stands at only 30%, a significant gap compared to the U.S. coal mining recovery rate of 58% on average. Between 1990 and 2000—a period of ten years—China wasted at least 10 billion tons of coal resources due to unregulated and excessive mining practices! For individual and small bauxite mines, which account for more than half of the nation’s total output, recovery rates are as low as 20–35%. Conservatively estimated, in the past decade alone, at least 25 million tons of bauxite resources have been wasted. If China could increase its overall mine recovery rate for coal resources by 5–10%, the amount of resources saved over the next 20 years could reach tens of billions of tons.

Currently, the low-level exploitation and utilization of small-scale mines and co-associated mineral deposits are the primary contributors to resource waste and environmental pollution in China. Increasing the recovery rate of small-scale mines and enhancing the comprehensive utilization of co-associated mineral deposits are key to curbing resource waste and environmental pollution.

Many industrial enterprises that process mineral resources have outdated technologies and loose management practices, making them another major source of resource waste and pollutant emissions.

3. The difficulty of governance is increasing, and mineral environmental issues could become a binding bottleneck in the construction of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

China’s mining industry generates astonishingly large volumes of solid waste and wastewater. Take, for example, the tailings discharged from mines: typically, for every 1 ton of metal or coal produced, tens or even hundreds of tons of ore and tailings are consumed and discharged (Table 1). The cumulative land area destroyed by mineral resource development has reached 2 million hectares (based on 1997 statistical data). At an increasing rate of 40,000 hectares per year, by 2010 the area of land destroyed will have risen to 2.56 million hectares, as shown in Table 1.
As mineral resources continue to be developed, the resulting environmental impacts are becoming increasingly significant, and the difficulty of remediation is also on the rise. Take coal as an example: the focus of development is gradually shifting toward ecologically fragile regions. In the coming years, 60 percent of coal production will be concentrated in the Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia regions; moreover, the growth in coal production capacity will be concentrated in areas facing water shortages. Currently, the Shenmu region alone has 216 coal mining enterprises, which have created an abandoned-mining-area covering 99.12 square kilometers. This has triggered 19 mine collapses, with a total collapse area reaching 27.73 square kilometers. Many mining areas are now experiencing “ground subsidence, waterlogging, and tree death,” directly affecting the livelihoods and daily lives of local residents. The ecological situation in these mining areas is extremely severe.

Non-metallic and construction-material mines are numerous and widely distributed, with their impact covering nearly all urban and rural areas. If preventive measures are not taken promptly, these enterprises will give rise to a host of environmental problems, thereby undermining the ecological balance in both urban and rural regions. As for ferrous and non-ferrous metal mines—whether newly developed or existing mines tapping into untapped potential—mining activities will inevitably expand their environmental footprint, creating new environmental issues or exacerbating the severity of already existing ones.

Even if mineral resource consumption were to double in order to support the achievement of the 2020 goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the environmental pressures from mineral resource development would remain extremely severe. The scale of movement of billions of tons of waste rock, tailings, and coal gangue—materials generated by mining activities—would increase by a factor of two, thereby intensifying the risks of chemical pollution and ecological imbalance. Clearly, unless comprehensive and effective control measures are adopted, ecological and environmental problems could erupt catastrophically at any time, potentially triggering irreversible ecological and environmental disasters. These disasters would become the greatest obstacle to fully building a moderately prosperous society and achieving sustainable development goals, and could even severely impact the global environment and damage China’s international image.

II. Current Status of Mine Environmental Remediation and Comprehensive Utilization in China

Mine environmental restoration and remediation is an extremely challenging and complex systematic undertaking. Its primary objectives are as follows: Building on the success of completed demonstration projects for mine environmental remediation, and taking into account the current basic conditions of China’s mine environments, we will adopt a coordinated and comprehensive approach, implement measures in stages, gradually address past environmental liabilities, prevent the accumulation of new liabilities, and halt the ongoing deterioration of mine environments. This will enable China’s mine environments to achieve fundamental improvement, further reducing secondary geological hazards, ecological damage, and pollution incidents associated with mining activities. At the same time, we will guide newly established mines to avoid repeating the old practice of sacrificing mine environments in exchange for economic gains, thereby ensuring that resource development and environmental protection are given equal priority and promoting the sustainable development of China’s mining industry.

In recent years, with support from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources has carried out some work on the remediation of geological environments in mining areas and has achieved certain results. However, China’s efforts to restore and rehabilitate mining geological environments are still in the initial stages, and a great deal of remediation work remains to be undertaken gradually in the future.

1. Management and Utilization of Solid Waste

The key issue in the comprehensive management of mine tailings and waste rock is their integrated utilization—reducing their volume, eliminating or controlling their hazards, and turning waste into valuable resources to achieve economic benefits. Therefore, “resource utilization, reduction, and harmlessness” constitute the guiding principles for the comprehensive management of mine tailings and waste rock.

Since the 1970s, China has attached great importance to the utilization of solid waste from mining operations and has achieved remarkable results. For example, in the Anben region, the seven large state-owned iron ore mines have generally established reprocessing workshops, where they recover iron concentrates (containing 54–65% iron) from tailings as well as intermediate concentrates (containing 35–40% iron), which are used as additives in cement plants. Another example is the Dexing Copper Mine in Jiangxi Province, which reprocesses its tailings to recover sulfur concentrates—1,000 tons per year—as well as 9.2 tons of copper and 33.4 kg of gold. Currently, the mine also employs heap leaching technology to extract and recover copper from tailings, near-surface ores, and even waste rock.

Although significant progress has been made in the utilization of solid mine wastes, overall, China’s level of comprehensive utilization of mineral resources and industrial solid wastes remains relatively low, with utilization rates for both standing at only around 30%. According to two sampling surveys conducted by the former Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources in 1989–1990 and 1996 on the exploration and development of resources in metallic and coal mines, the total recovery rate for nine types of nonferrous minerals was 30% in 1989 and 38% in 1995—20 percentage points lower than the global average. Currently, among China’s mineral resources, only half of the recoverable mineral species are being comprehensively recycled, and the overall comprehensive utilization rate stands at 50%, about 30 percentage points lower than that in foreign countries. The practice of mining the main ore while discarding the associated by-products, or mining the rich ores while ignoring the poorer ones, is still widespread. Moreover, the development and utilization of tailings resources are still in their infancy, with the amount utilized accounting for less than 10%.

Improving the utilization rate of mineral resources involves both recycling and, more importantly, putting an end to the extensive exploitation of mineral resources to reduce resource waste. Currently, there is no nationwide systematic inventory of secondary mineral resources from mines. However, based on several localized surveys conducted so far, the quantities involved already clearly demonstrate that China’s total potential for secondary mineral resources from mines is enormous. According to statistical data, the cumulative stockpile of coal gangue across the country has reached approximately 3 billion tons, occupying an area of 110 million square meters, with over 100 million tons of new coal gangue generated each year. The total volume of tailings accumulated in metallurgical mines nationwide exceeds 700 million cubic meters, encroaching upon and directly polluting land covering more than one million mu.

2. Wastewater Treatment

During mining operations, large volumes of mine wastewater are generated, including pit water, waste rock dump runoff, and leachate from tailings ponds and waste rock yards. Even after a mine is closed and abandoned, mine wastewater will continue to be produced for a considerable period, posing risks to the environment.

The vast majority of China’s nonferrous metal mines, along with some iron mines and precious-metal mines, are hosted by primary sulfide deposits or deposits containing sulfides. Whether mined through open-pit or underground methods, these deposits generate substantial amounts of sulfide-bearing or sulfide-containing waste rock. When such waste rock is stockpiled in tailings ponds, it undergoes weathering and leaching under the influence of oxygen and water, producing large volumes of acidic wastewater. It can be said that nonferrous metal mines—as well as precious-metal and iron mines containing sulfides—have become among the industries most severely polluting water bodies and ecological environments. Another issue that cannot be overlooked is the discharge of acidic mine water from coal mining in China, particularly in coal mines with high sulfur content located in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Shaanxi, and Shanxi provinces, where iron- and sulfur-rich acidic mine water has become a major source of pollution.

Over the years, China has achieved certain successes in the treatment of acidic mine wastewater. For example, from 1983 to 1993, the Yunfu Sulfur-Magnesium Mine in Guangdong Province invested a total of 93.5 million yuan to establish four acidic water treatment stations. These stations employ the limestone neutralization method to treat acidic wastewater, with a daily processing capacity of 6,000 cubic meters, and the treated water meets the national Class III discharge standards. At Dexing Copper Mine—the largest open-pit non-ferrous metal mine in China—research findings on neutralization and sulfide precipitation for treating acidic wastewater have already been applied in the second-phase wastewater treatment project. Currently, the mine is preparing to directly neutralize acidic mine wastewater using the alkalinity of tailings, thereby paving the way for the third-phase wastewater treatment project.

3. Land reclamation

Land reclamation refers to the activities undertaken during production and construction to rehabilitate land that has been damaged by excavation, subsidence, or occupation, restoring it to a state where it can be reused. Land reclamation is undoubtedly essential for environmental protection and for alleviating the imbalance between the supply and demand of arable land.

It has been more than a decade since China’s State Council issued the “Regulations on Land Reclamation.” During this period, the land reclamation rate in mining areas has risen from less than 2% to 6%. A survey of pilot mining areas in four provinces—Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, and Gansu—reveals that the land reclamation rate has climbed to 43.40%. However, this figure still falls significantly short of the 80% reclamation rate achieved by newly established mines in the United States after 1977.

Currently, China allocates special funds annually to accelerate the land reclamation efforts in mining areas. From 2001 to 2003, the Ministry of Natural Resources arranged a total of 731 national investment projects for land consolidation, reclamation, and development, and organized work on the remediation and restoration of mine environments. As a result, 18 exemplary ecological restoration and remediation projects were completed in typical mining areas, including Luquan City in Hebei Province and Yancheng County in Jiangsu Province, with a total project scale of 473,900 hectares. Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province have made substantial progress.

III. Policy Recommendations

1. Strengthen the development of regulations and institutional frameworks, and comprehensively advance environmental protection efforts in the exploration and utilization of mineral resources.

Currently, China’s existing laws and regulations concerning mine environmental protection largely focus on the control and treatment of “three wastes” pollution, while other environmental issues associated with mining operations still receive insufficient attention. Therefore, it is imperative that the relevant laws and regulations be promptly supplemented with provisions addressing these additional environmental concerns. Given the severity of mine environmental problems and the urgency of addressing them, there is an immediate need to advance the legislative process for the “Regulations on Mine Environmental Protection Management,” taking into account the unique characteristics of mine environmental issues and their close link to the exploration and development of mineral resources. The “Regulations on Mine Environmental Protection Management” should cover the entire lifecycle of mining activities—from exploration and feasibility studies through mine design, construction, production, and mine closure—and should codify various effective environmental management systems and regulations. Moreover, mine environmental management must be closely integrated with the management of mining rights and mineral resource development.

While strengthening legislation on the protection of mineral resource environments and establishing a management system for mine environmental protection, it is imperative to intensify law enforcement efforts in environmental protection—ensuring that there are laws to follow, laws must be strictly enforced, enforcement must be rigorous, and violations must be duly investigated and punished.

2. Develop a mine environmental protection plan and carry out mine environmental protection and remediation in a scientific and orderly manner.

The national mine environmental protection and remediation plan shall be formulated based on the National Economic and Social Development Plan, the Land Development and Remediation Plan, the Overall Urban Construction Plan, and other relevant documents. It should comprehensively take into account the quality and conditions of the ecological environment in mining areas, integrate with mineral resource development plans, and refer to technical requirements such as mine environmental impact assessments and remediation standards. After being approved by the State Council, the plan shall be incorporated into the National Economic and Social Development Plan. The administrative departments of land and resources under provincial, municipal, and county-level governments, in coordination with departments responsible for environmental protection and other relevant agencies, shall also formulate corresponding regional mine environmental protection and remediation plans, which shall be incorporated into the respective provincial, municipal, and county economic and social development plans.

Based on the experiences and lessons learned from decades of mineral resource development in our country, the formulation of mine environmental protection plans must comprehensively take into account the quality and conditions of the regional ecological environment, and, in conjunction with the region’s economic and social functional zoning, delineate suitable mining areas, restricted mining areas, and prohibited mining areas. Once the mining areas have been identified, at the micro level, it is also necessary to separate mining areas from residential areas. For mining areas where cities are to be built on the basis of large- and extra-large-scale mining operations, it is especially crucial to keep urban areas and mining areas completely separate, thereby avoiding serious risks to human safety and property caused by the overlap between production and residential zones. Meanwhile, land and resources management authorities at all levels must, in accordance with the mine environmental protection plan, rigorously fulfill their responsibilities for supervision and inspection, ensuring the strict implementation of the plan and preventing arbitrary actions.

3. Implement a deposit system for mine environmental restoration and land reclamation.

Mining operations all have a specific lifespan, and environmental restoration following the cessation of mining activities represents a prominent challenge in mine environmental management. The security deposit system serves as one of the "thresholds" that mining right holders must meet when applying for mining rights. Essentially, it leverages economic management tools to compel mining right holders to fulfill their obligations regarding mine environmental restoration and land reclamation. To this end, mining right holders are required to submit security deposits according to the amounts and deadlines stipulated by the government. If the mining right holder fulfills its obligations for mine-site restoration as prescribed, the government will refund the security deposit along with any accrued interest; otherwise, the government may use these funds to carry out mine-site restoration itself. Given that the mining industry is currently characterized by being a vulnerable sector—often burdened with heavy social responsibilities, high environmental remediation costs, and relatively low economic returns—we recommend that the national government adjust its tax policies toward mining enterprises, thereby fostering the effective implementation of mine environmental restoration and remediation efforts.

4. Establish an “Environmental Remediation Fund for Abandoned and Old Mines” to carry out environmental remediation of abandoned mines.

Our country has accumulated a significant backlog in environmental restoration and land reclamation efforts for abandoned mines. It is recommended that we adopt a governance approach centered on establishing a Mine Environmental Restoration Fund, supplemented by other market-oriented funding channels. Drawing on international experience, the environmental restoration and land reclamation backlogs for mines left over from the old China era, as well as those built during the planned economy period of the new China—especially those abandoned mines for which the original owners can no longer be traced—should primarily be addressed through the establishment of a “Fund for Environmental Remediation of Abandoned and Old Mines.” This fund should be complemented by market-based mechanisms, with the state introducing preferential policies in areas such as taxation, fiscal subsidies, land use, and credit to encourage both legal entities and individuals to engage in industrialized operations under the principle of “whoever restores benefits, whoever uses.” In return, these entities would enjoy access to secondary resources from abandoned mines and the right to use reclaimed mine lands, thereby contributing to the environmental restoration and remediation of abandoned mines.

5. Rely on scientific and technological progress to enhance the efficiency of mineral resource exploration and utilization.

To significantly enhance resource productivity and build a mineral resource extraction and utilization industry that is resource-efficient, technological advancement is key. We must adhere to the fundamental principles of the circular economy—reduction (Reduce), resource recovery (Reuse), and recycling (Recycle)—commonly referred to as the 3R principle—to achieve the development goal of "low extraction, high utilization, and low emissions." This involves maximizing the use of materials and energy within the system, improving resource utilization rates, minimizing pollutant emissions, and fostering symbiotic chains among upstream and downstream enterprises, thereby enabling the comprehensive utilization of waste and clean production of products. In this way, we can establish an environmentally harmonious economic model that ensures the sustainable use of resources.

Mining enterprises have great potential in developing a circular economy and building green mines. It’s important to recognize that mines are brimming with untapped treasures waiting to be harnessed. Clearly, each step forward in the mining industry’s value chain not only increases the added value generated from processing and transforming mineral resources but also correspondingly reduces emissions of “three wastes.”

6. Implement the “Two Resources, Two Markets” strategy to alleviate environmental pressures on mines.

This century, China faces a severe shortage of critical mineral resources such as petroleum, iron ore, chromite, copper ore, and potash salts. Meanwhile, the world boasts abundant reserves of these same minerals—petroleum, iron, chromium, manganese, copper, and potash salts—and their resources complement China’s domestic supply and market needs remarkably well. At the same time, China enjoys strong export advantages in minerals like tungsten, tin, rare earth elements, and fluorite, holding a dominant position globally and maintaining effective control over their extraction. Based on the characteristics of China’s mineral resources outlined above, we should strategically implement the “Two Resources, Two Markets” approach, actively creating favorable conditions to participate in the global competition for mineral resources. From a tactical perspective, the state should adopt stringent measures to restrict the export of primary mineral products that are highly energy-intensive and polluting; instead, it should import mineral products with higher added value. Furthermore, the country should intensify efforts to restructure its industrial sectors, vigorously develop the service industry and high-tech industries, and accelerate the modernization of traditional industries—all in order to effectively alleviate environmental pressures on mining regions.

References

[1] Wu Qiang, A Study on the Classification of Environmental Geological Problems in China’s Mines, Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, 2003, 5: 107-112

[2] Zhang Deming, Liu Shuchen, Xiang Renjie, Rational Development of Mineral Resources and Comprehensive Management of Mine Environment—Characteristics and Issues, Land & Resources Information, 2003, 12: 5-9

[3] Liu Yuqiang, Guo Min, Analysis of the Current Status of Solid Waste from Mine Tailings and Geological Environment in China, China Mining, 2004, 13 (3): 1-5

[4] Compiled by the Planning Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, “Research on Mineral Resource Planning,” Geological Publishing House, p. 143

[5] Wu Xiaodong and Ong Duan, translators; Friedrich and Schmidt-Bleek, authors; How Big a World Does Humanity Need?: MIPS—The Ecologically and Economically Efficient Scale; Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2003