西部矿山环境警报频响

The Environmental Situation of Mines in West China is Sounding Alarm Bells

在中国西部,矿产资源丰富,资源潜力巨大.据有关部门统计,西部地区的矿产资源开发有力地支撑了区域经济的发展,其矿业产值占其工业总产值的55%以上.与此同时,一批大型矿业基地和大型矿山企业的建立,加速了地区工业化和城市化进程,带动了大批相关产业的迅猛发展.

West China abounds in resources, and a number of mining bases and large-scale ming enterprises have been set up, which have accelerated the local industrialization and urbanization. At the same time, the ecological environmental pollution caused by the reckless exploitation of resources are getting more worse, which has become a major factor of constraining the local economic-social sustainable development. The land around mines are largely occupied and heavily polluted, as a result, the farmland is decreasing, the overlying surface land is seriously collapsed in a large scale, a great amount of irrational discharge of mining waste is heavily polluting the underground and surface water and land, soil erosion and geological hazard , such as landslide, mud-rock flow, etc. have caused much more casualties and economic losses. To solve contradiction between the resources exploitation and environmental protection is the need to realize the sustainable development. A new concept of Green Mining Industry is proposed by some experts: first, environmental impact assessment index system and technological standards should be set up and then green mining plans should be worked out; second, the polluted degree in mining, dressing and smelting should be lowered in the maximum by innovating technology and improving technological process; third, the environment in mines should be improved and local ecological environment should be rehabilitated further. Since the beginning of the year, the State Environmental Protection Administration, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the State Administration of Work Safety have taken further measures to the environment of mines in all over the country. So, there is a bright hope to protect and improve the mining environments in West China.