Earth Day | The Importance of Mine Ecological Restoration!

Mineral resources, also known as mineral resources, refer to the aggregates of minerals or useful elements formed by geological mineralization, naturally occurring in the crust or on the surface, buried underground or exposed on the surface, in solid, liquid or gaseous form, and with development and utilization value.

According to Article 2 of the rules for the implementation of the Mineral Resources Law, mineral resources refer to solid, liquid and gaseous natural resources formed by geological processes and with utilization value.

Mineral resources are non-renewable resources, and their reserves are limited. China has found that minerals can be divided into energy minerals (such as coal, oil, geothermal), metal minerals (such as iron, manganese, copper), non-metallic minerals (such as diamond, limestone, clay) and water and gas minerals (such as groundwater, mineral water, carbon dioxide gas) four categories.

Mineral resources mining refers to the process of extracting and processing mineral resources such as ores and deposits buried underground through mining technology and technology. Mineral resources exploitation is a systematic project, involving geological exploration, mining engineering, mineral processing engineering and mineral resources management and other aspects of knowledge and technology.

Mine restoration, also known as mine ecological restoration, is to repair the pollution of mining wasteland. China is a large country rich in mineral resources. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after the reform and opening up, the mining industry has developed rapidly, but large-scale development has also brought about ecological and environmental problems. National mining not only occupies and damages a large amount of land, but also causes serious resource pollution and idle waste of resources in historical mines after mining. Mining has seriously damaged mountains and vegetation, damaged natural habitats of wild animals and plants, landslides, mountain torrents and other disasters and collapse accidents also occur from time to time.

In the process of mining, a large amount of land that cannot be used without treatment will be produced, also known as mining wasteland. There are various kinds of pollution caused by production, mining and abandonment. Mine restoration refers to the restoration of pollution in mining wasteland, the restoration of the damaged ecological environment and the sustainable use of land resources. With the development of ecological civilization construction, mine ecological restoration has become an important environmental governance issue.

On December 17, 2019, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the Opinions on Exploring the Use of Market-oriented Methods to Promote Mine Ecological Restoration (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), in order to solve the historical debts, practical contradictions, and insufficient investment in mine ecological restoration. For outstanding issues, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the requirement of "building an environmental governance system led by the government, enterprises as the main body, social organizations and the public, adhere to the principle of" who destroys, who governs "and" who repairs, who benefits ", through policy incentives, attract investment from all parties, implement a market-oriented operation and scientific governance model, and accelerate the promotion of mine ecological restoration. On the basis of this "opinion", various local laws and regulations or policies have been issued in order to actively promote the smooth development of mine ecological restoration work.

Local departments in charge of natural resources at all levels shall investigate the current situation, ownership and legality of land use in mining areas. For agricultural land that cannot be restored to its original use due to mining subsidence, it can be changed to other types of agricultural land or unused land after being verified by the provincial natural resources department in conjunction with relevant departments and obtained the consent of the land right holder, and reported to the Ministry of Natural Resources for approval. The actual overall planning of cultivated land will be reduced, and the permanent basic farmland will be adjusted and remarked according to regulations and included in the land space planning. The reduction of arable land does not exempt those responsible for the collapse from their statutory obligations.

In 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources organized the preparation of the "14th Five-Year Plan" mine ecological restoration plan, especially strengthening the ecological restoration of historical mines in key river basins and key areas, building demonstration projects for the ecological restoration of historical mines and abandoned mines, and supporting Fujian, Sichuan, Ningxia, etc. 11 demonstration projects have been implemented in mineral resource concentrated development zones and areas with prominent ecological problems in ecological locations, with an estimated treatment area of 14900 hectares. At present, the national verification of historical mines has been basically completed, the situation of historical mines for which the government is responsible for governance has been basically found out, and a unified national database of historical mines has been established to provide support for the implementation of restoration and governance in accordance with local conditions. At the same time, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the State Forestry and Grass Administration guided the implementation of ecological evaluation of the ecological damage and pollution status of historical mines in the Yellow River Basin in 9 provinces and regions along the Yellow River, and achieved good results.

When formulating land space plans, the municipal and county-level people's governments should fully consider the current situation and development potential of land use in historical mines and abandoned mining areas where mines are being mined, soil environmental quality, water resources balance, geological environment safety and ecological protection and restoration suitability, etc., respect the opinions of land rights holders, and combine the needs of ecological function restoration, subsequent resource development and utilization, and industrial development, in accordance with the principles of agriculture, construction, water, and retention, the scale, structure, layout and timing of various types of spatial land in the mining area are reasonably determined, and the pattern of land utilization is optimized for rational development and scientific utilization. Create conditions.

For example, Shandong Province: on December 27, 2023, the people's Government of Shandong Province issued the notice of Shandong Provincial People's Government on printing and distributing the land and space planning of Shandong Province (2021-2035) after being approved by the State Council; on December 28, 2023, the Department of natural resources of Shandong Province issued the notice of land and space planning of the Yellow River Basin in Shandong Province (2021-2035). The above documents are related to the relevant opinions on improving the guarantee capacity of mineral resources and promoting the construction of green mines from the perspective of land and space planning.

If the abandoned state-owned construction land left over from historical mines is to be converted into commercial construction land after restoration, under the premise of conforming to the national land space planning, the local government can carry out the preliminary development of the land after the overall restoration, and determine the land use right holder by means of open competition; The mine ecological restoration plan and the land transfer plan can also be used to determine the same restoration subject and land use right holder through open competition, and signed an ecological restoration agreement and land transfer contract. If the state-owned construction land abandoned by historical mines is to be used as state-owned agricultural land after restoration, the municipal or county-level people's government or its authorized department may determine the main body of restoration in the form of an agreement, and the two parties shall sign a contract for the contracted management of state-owned agricultural land to engage in planting, forestry, animal husbandry or fishery production.

For the collective construction land in the abandoned land of historical mines, collective economic organizations can invest in the restoration by themselves, and can also attract social capital to participate. After the restoration, the land and space planning is determined as industrial, commercial and other business uses, and the collective business construction land registered in accordance with the law can be sold or leased by the land owner for the development of related industries.

According to the land space planning, all localities will develop the tourism industry on the land restored by the mine, and build non-permanent ancillary facilities such as sightseeing platforms and plank roads. Under the premise of not occupying permanent basic farmland, not destroying the ecological environment, natural landscape and geological safety, the land may not be expropriated (recovered), not converted to use, and managed according to the current use.

On April 16, 2024, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration jointly issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Construction of Green Mines, its purpose is also to further promote the construction of ecological civilization and green and low-carbon development in the mining field, based on the new stage, standardize and guide local governments to better carry out relevant management work.

At present, the state encourages mine restoration to achieve good results. The 37 typical cases published in the "Typical Cases Collection of Land and Space Ecological Restoration" involve 17 provinces, all of which are distributed in the "three zones and four zones" national ecological security barriers or regional ecological security barriers. The key nodes cover lakes, wetlands, estuaries, river centers, deserts, mines, degraded land and other types, as well as nature reserves, watersheds, coastal zones and islands and other types of areas. Such as the ecological restoration project of abandoned mines in Datian County, Fujian Province, the comprehensive management and ecological restoration project of abandoned mines in Xunwu County, the ecological restoration project of Lingshan mining area in Wuhan City, etc., these mine management ecological restoration projects have certain demonstration and reference significance and are worthy of promotion and implementation.

All localities can use the state-owned construction land after mine restoration to develop education, scientific research, sports, public culture, medical and health, social welfare and other industries in accordance with the land space planning. If it meets the "Allocated Land Catalog", it can provide land in the form of allocation in accordance with relevant regulations. The right to use the land encourages land users to obtain land use rights by means of transfer, lease and other paid methods on a voluntary basis. The state-owned construction land after mine restoration can be supplied in the form of flexible term transfer, long-term lease, first lease and then transfer, and lease and transfer.

For example, Hebei Province issued the "Implementation Measures on Exploring and Using Market-oriented Methods to Promote Mine Ecological Restoration", which introduced a differentiated land supply policy in Hebei Province; the Guizhou Provincial Department of Natural Resources also adopted multiple channels and differentiated methods to ensure mining Reasonable demand for land. Encourage the acquisition of land by means of long-term lease, first lease and then transfer, flexible term transfer, etc. From the actual point of view of the industry, the scale of land for mining projects is large, the land approval procedures involve planning space, planning indicators, occupation and compensation balance, etc., the stock of mining land reclamation and repair lack of effective incentive mechanism, it is difficult to mobilize the initiative of mining enterprises. The above-mentioned provisions are introduced on the basis of the original land use policy to broaden the way of land security, and propose the establishment of a mechanism to link the new land for mining projects with the reclamation and repair of the stock of mining land, and the withdrawal index can continue to be used. This can not only ensure the reasonable demand for mining land, but also encourage the stock of mining land to speed up reclamation, and provide land support for the security of energy resources supply.

If all localities restore the stock of construction land acquired by mining mines in accordance with the law and the abandoned construction land left over from historical mines into cultivated land, after passing the acceptance, they can refer to the policy of linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land, and the construction land index vacated can be transferred and used within the province. Among them, if the mine being mined restores the stock of construction land acquired in accordance with the law into cultivated land and garden land, woodland, grassland and other agricultural land, after acceptance, the construction land index vacated can be used for the same legal person enterprise to occupy the same type of agricultural land for new mining activities within the province.

On the premise of meeting the requirements of land space planning and soil environmental quality and not changing the land use right holder, after being approved according to law and paying the land transfer price according to the market price, mining enterprises may restore the state-owned construction land obtained according to law for industrial, commercial, service and other operational purposes.

For example, the Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province issued and implemented the Notice of the Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province on Carrying out the Reclamation and Restoration of Existing Mining Land, which made it clear that the reclamation and restoration of historical mining land in Guangdong Province will be implemented in accordance with the policy of linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land and in accordance with the "demolition before construction" model. The "Implementation Measures of Hebei Province on Exploring and Using Market-oriented Methods to Promote Mine Ecological Restoration" also clarified incentive policies for revitalizing the stock of mine construction land.

For the restoration of historical open-pit mining mines organized and implemented by local governments, the newly generated earth and stone materials and the earth and stone materials left in situ due to the restoration projects such as slope cutting and load reduction, elimination of hidden dangers of geological disasters, etc., can be used for this restoration project free of charge; if there is any surplus, it can be sold to the outside world, and the county-level people's government will incorporate it into the public resource trading platform, and the sales proceeds will be used for ecological restoration, where the social investment subject undertakes the restoration project, its reasonable income shall be guaranteed. The soil and stone utilization plan and the mine ecological restoration plan shall be prepared simultaneously on the basis of scientific evaluation and demonstration, and shall be implemented after the county-level natural resources department reports to the municipal natural resources department for review and approval.

While encouraging rational use, violations of laws and regulations should also be strictly prohibited. Therefore, on March 2, 2023, the notice of the general office of the Ministry of natural resources on strengthening the standardized implementation, supervision and management of land and space ecological restoration projects stated that the policy boundary of resource utilization should be strictly defined, and the relevant requirements of the opinions of the Ministry of natural resources on exploring and utilizing market-oriented ways to promote mine ecological restoration should be accurately grasped, It belongs to the ecological restoration project of open-pit mines left over by the county level (including) local people's government and above, in accordance with the requirements of "one mine, one policy", the soil and stone utilization plan and mine ecological restoration plan shall be prepared simultaneously on the basis of scientific evaluation and demonstration. The implementation period determined by the plan shall not exceed 3 years in principle. The plan shall be implemented after being approved by the county-level people's government and submitted by the county-level natural resources department to the municipal natural resources department for examination and approval, the people's government at the county level shall be organized into the public resources trading platform for sale, and shall not be sold directly by the project undertaking unit, construction unit or individual, and the proceeds from the sales shall be incorporated into the financial account of the people's government at the corresponding level, and all shall be used for ecological restoration in the region. if the social investment subject undertakes the restoration project, its reasonable income shall be guaranteed.

At the same time, the Department of Natural Resources of Anhui Province and other prefectures and cities have also issued the ''Notice on Further Strictly Clarifying the Policy Boundary of Soil and Stone Utilization in the Ecological Restoration of Abandoned Mines, ''and other regulations, clarifying that waste soil and stone materials must not be undertaken by the project unit, construction unit or individual Direct sales, etc.

Local natural resources authorities at all levels should strengthen work guidance, do a good job in daily supervision and management, establish and improve a supervision mechanism involving the government, mining enterprises, social investors, and the public, and explore the establishment of a system for repairing corporate integrity files and credit accumulation. In particular, it is necessary to ensure that the quality of cultivated land and other agricultural land formed by mine restoration meets the requirements of soil environmental quality; to ensure that plots listed in the list of soil pollution risk control and restoration are not adjusted to residential, public management and public service land until the objectives of risk control and restoration are met. Strengthen the supervision of projects involving the disposal of waste earth and stone to prevent the occurrence of various violations of laws and regulations.

For example, the Natural Resources Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region issued a notice on the issuance of the "Administrative Measures for the Ecological Restoration of Abandoned Mines in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region", which stated the supervision and responsibility subjects of mine restoration and governance, and the prohibition of behaviors.