Special attention should be paid to the management of geological ecological environment in old mines

(Consulting and Research Center of Ministry of Land and Resources, Beijing, 1008 12)

By enumerating the examples and data held by the author, this paper briefly introduces the serious geological and ecological environment problems existing in old mines in China, expounds that the realization of geological and ecological environment control of old mines has multiple benefits of environment, resources and economy, and suggests that the state should complete the investigation of ecological environment problems of old mines through special financial projects and take the road of industrialization to realize ecological environment control of old mines.

Keywords economic compensation insurance for geological disasters

1 The geological and ecological environment of the old mine is very serious.

China's mineral exploration and development have made great contributions to China's socialist construction and development, and this contribution cannot be overstated. However, due to the limitation of history and the restriction of domestic environment in different periods, we did not take into account the proper balance of nature while asking for it, and even owed an important old account. This is the governance of geological and ecological environment in old mines. According to the survey of the Mining Association, the following sets of data are enough to illustrate the seriousness of the problem:

The impact of mining development on the environment is enormous. Every time 1t iron ore is mined in iron mines in China, an average of 0.48t tailings and 1.67t waste rock are produced. From 65,438+0,949 to 2000, China produced a total of 5.4 billion tons of iron ore. According to the above ratio, 2.6 billion tons of tailings and 9.4 billion tons of waste rock were produced.

Every time 1t ore is mined in non-ferrous mines in China, an average of 0.92t tailings and 1.25t waste rock are produced. In recent 50 years, the cumulative amount of tailings and waste rock produced by non-ferrous mines has reached 2 1 100 million t and 2.5 billion t respectively.

There are more than 1500 coal gangue hills formed by coal mining in China, and the coal gangue reserves reach 3.56 billion tons. In addition, a large amount of waste gas and waste water are discharged into the atmosphere and the surface. It is estimated that the amount of gas discharged into the atmosphere due to coal mining will reach 900 million ~ 654.38+0 billion t each year, and the wastewater discharged from coal washing will reach 900 million t.

At present, the annual emission of fly ash from coal-fired thermal power plants has reached 65.438+0.7 billion tons. Although the utilization rate of fly ash has increased to 53%, the accumulated storage of fly ash that has not been used for many years has reached more than 800 million tons, covering an area of nearly 200,000 mu.

Tailings produced by mining development not only affect the environment, but also threaten people's lives and property. The reason is that in the existing tailings ponds in our country, the proportion of sick banks and dangerous banks is relatively large. Of the more than 70 tailings ponds in key mines of ferrous metallurgy, 30% have certain problems and many problems. Among the 149 active tailings ponds surveyed in nonferrous metal mines, 48% of them are out of danger. Among the 8 tailings ponds in chemical mine/KLOC-0, there are 7 dangerous warehouses and overdue warehouses, accounting for 4 1%. There are 368 tailings ponds in gold (rock gold) mines, of which 44% are overdue.

Once there are problems in these disease banks and dangerous banks, the consequences will be very serious. On June 65438+1October 65438+August, 2000, the tailings dam in Dachang Town, Nandan County, Guangxi collapsed, forming a "debris flow" lasting more than 600 m, and hundreds of houses were destroyed, resulting in 15 deaths and 100 missing.

Mining development has seriously damaged the land. According to the investigation of 1995 ~ 1996 by relevant departments, the total area of state-owned mines above medium size is 72997 1.6ha, of which 58 152.7ha is open-pit mining and 33 180.9ha is dump. Soil erosion caused by mining 17063.7ha, land desertification 743.5ha, debris flow 460.9ha, collapse 349.5ha, landslide 577.8ha, and the land subsidence caused by coal mining in China is about 720,000 ha. More than half of the 720,000 hectares of collapsed land is cultivated land, most of which is fertile land.

2. There are many benefits in harnessing the geological and ecological environment of old mines.

According to the requirements of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that "the ability of sustainable development is constantly enhanced, the ecological environment is improved, the efficiency of resource utilization is significantly improved, the harmony between man and nature is promoted, and the whole society is on the road of civilized development with production development, affluent life and good ecology", it is imperative to control the destruction of geological ecological environment by old mines. In fact, this treatment is not only related to the ecological environment, but also has important environmental benefits, as well as considerable resource benefits and economic benefits. This is a major event with multiple goals.

2. 1 environmental benefits

There are many kinds of geological disasters directly caused by mine development, such as collapse, landslide, debris flow, ground collapse, ground fissure, spontaneous combustion of coal seam, spontaneous combustion of coal gangue, soil erosion, land desertification, dam break of tailings pond, gas explosion, mine water inrush and so on. Every disaster may cause huge loss of life and property. The ecological environment pollution caused by mine development is even more difficult to prevent, such as the pollution of surface water and groundwater, the pollution of land, vegetation and atmospheric environment caused by mine "three wastes", and the ecological environment diseases caused by it are extremely harmful. Therefore, it is an urgent need for China to build a well-off society in an all-round way to control the geological and ecological environment caused by mining, which has extremely significant environmental benefits.

2.2 Resource efficiency

During the planned economy period, China implemented the policy of strengthening the development of domestic mineral resources, which led to excessive consumption of resources. Nowadays, in the new period of rapid development of national economy, the supply of domestic mineral resources seems to be insufficient. In this case, if the tailings of raw ore can be used, it will produce great resource benefits. There are many precedents to follow. For example, the Bayan Obo Fe-Nb rare earth deposit is unique in the world, and its rare earth reserves account for more than 80% of the world's total rare earth reserves. At present, iron is mainly recovered, and rare earth recovery is less than 30,000 tons per year. Because the content of rare earth oxides in the 2 million tons of mixed tailings produced by iron ore mining every year can reach 5% ~ 6%, the tailings discharged in one year constitute a medium-sized rare earth-rich deposit. As a valuable secondary resource, tailings not only contain recoverable useful metals or components, but also can be used as an important source of many nonmetallic materials, building materials and ceramic products. Yichun Tantalum-Niobium Mine is a supplier of high-quality lepidolite and feldspar powder, with an annual output of lepidolite 1 1,000 ~ 20,000t and feldspar powder of 80,000 ~1000t. Many mines use tailings to produce baking-free bricks, colored floor tiles and glass-ceramics. Tailings can also be used instead of sand and gravel for construction and paving, or as underground filling materials. In a word, tailings are widely used as secondary resources.

Tailings and waste rocks formed by mine development occupy a lot of land, many of which are fertile fields. Once the occupied land is reclaimed, it can greatly increase China's land resources, which is an excellent resource benefit. Because compared with mineral resources, land is irreplaceable by imports and is a scarcer resource.

2.3 Economic benefits

The economic benefits of mine geological ecological environment management are shown in two aspects:

First, the economic benefits of geological disasters that can be reduced or avoided through governance are manifested in the reduction of negative benefits. According to the survey, among the 26 geological disasters of debris flow in 20 mining areas in northwest China since 1987, there are 9 cases with economic losses exceeding 5 million yuan, 8 cases exceeding100000 yuan and 2 cases exceeding1000000 yuan. If these losses are avoided through governance, its economic benefits are considerable.

Second, the comprehensive social and economic benefits of tailings, waste rocks and land use. Such as the comprehensive utilization of iron ore tailings. According to incomplete statistics, the iron concentrate recovered from tailings in China has reached 800,000 tons every year, with an output value of 65.438+0.5 billion yuan and an annual profit of 26.56 million yuan. Many nonferrous mines have recovered many useful components such as pyrite, copper, tin, lead and zinc from tailings, and some old mines even use tailings as raw materials when resources are exhausted.

Land reclamation also has good economic benefits. Take Jiawang area in Xuzhou, Jiangsu as an example. This is a serious area that collapsed due to coal mining. The accumulated land subsidence has reached 89 190 mu, and it is still growing at a rate of about 2000 mu every year. Over the years, the area has invested more than 35.4 million yuan to reclaim the subsided land 1.76 million mu. The reclaimed land increases grain by 8.98 million kilograms every year, produces 6.5438+0.32 million kilograms of fish, raises more than 20,000 chickens, provides domestic and industrial water for more than 80,000 people, irrigates more than 40,000 mu of farmland, burns more than 600 million bricks, resettles more than 30,000 people, and achieves economic benefits of 65.438+0.6 billion yuan.

3 finance should be classified as a special project to investigate the geological and ecological environment problems of old mines.

At present, the geological and ecological environment problems of old mines are mainly left over from the planned economic system. At that time, mine production did not realize the seriousness of these problems, nor did it reserve treatment expenses in the cost. At that time, the accounting system was that the income of mineral products was turned over to the finance in addition to the production cost. In fact, the cost of mine geological and ecological environment management saved at that time was handed over to the government as financial income. In view of this situation, it is natural for the government to allocate special funds to solve the environmental treatment costs of these old mines, that is, to repay past debts. At the same time, judging from the public finance function under the socialist market economy system, the environmental management of these old mines is also a public welfare undertaking, and its consumption is not exclusive, and its income is not exclusive, so it should also be solved by the financial funds of governments at all levels. In particular, it needs to be pointed out that squeezing out a small amount of funds from geological survey to investigate the geological and ecological environment problems of mines is far from meeting the needs, which is also an important reason for applying for special financial projects. Of course, this special expense is limited to the investigation funds, and the funds needed for governance are another matter.

The main task of mine geological and ecological environment control investigation project is to find out the basic situation, and on this basis, put forward control suggestions:

First, define the scope of this survey. That is, only those old mines produced during the planned economy period are investigated; Mines produced after the reform and opening up should be solved by the responsible subject and the government should be responsible for supervision and inspection in line with the principle that whoever destroys them should be governed; For new mines under construction or in the future, ecological environment management should be incorporated into mineral development design to reflect the requirements of sustainable development.

Secondly, clarify the problems to be solved in the special investigation. Xi Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources has put forward 23 indicators in three aspects: resource destruction, geological disasters and environmental pollution for reference. Specifically, it includes: land occupation destruction, mineral resources destruction, water resources destruction, vegetation resources destruction, geological relics destruction and geological landscape destruction; Collapse, landslide, debris flow, ground subsidence, ground fissures, soil erosion, land desertification, spontaneous combustion of coal seams, spontaneous combustion of coal gangue, mine water inrush, dam failure of tailings pond and gas explosion; Water pollution, soil pollution, air pollution, vegetation pollution, ecological environment diseases, etc.

Third, evaluate or evaluate the main problems. Including the evaluation of the severity of the problem, and according to the evaluation results, take the province as the unit, and set the priority order; Evaluate the technical methods of the solution and demonstrate the feasibility accordingly; Evaluate the governance effect, including possible environmental benefits, resource benefits and economic benefits, and put forward governance suggestions accordingly; Evaluate the responsible subject and propose the responsible unit to solve the problem accordingly. 4. The management of geological ecological environment in old mines should be industrialized.

The investigation of geological and ecological environmental problems in old mines is to control, and the environmental control under the socialist market economy system can completely take the road of industrialization. In fact, a large number of enterprises are engaged in environmental governance, and they are in the development momentum. Therefore, the governance of geological and ecological environment in old mines should be brought into this new industry.

(1) Solve the problem of funding sources, which is also the crux of this problem that has not been solved for many years and is getting more and more serious. There should be some new ideas about this. At least the following three aspects can be considered: (1) It is necessary to clarify the main body responsible for environmental problems, pursue them along the main body of responsibility until they are implemented in existing responsible units, such as enterprises directly under the central government at that time, and the central finance should be responsible; At that time, it was caused by provincial enterprises, and the provincial finance should be responsible, and so on. (2) It is necessary to clarify the beneficiaries of governance results. If it is environmental benefits and public welfare undertakings, finance should contribute; If there are resource benefits, land resources and mineral resources can be produced through governance, then it is necessary to evaluate the specific input-output resource income to make up for the corresponding expenses; If it has economic benefits, it can attract investment and solve it with social funds. (3) To make use of various financing channels, financial contribution can include central finance and local finance; Social contributions can include personal investment, issuing stocks, introducing foreign capital, bank credit, social donations, etc.

(2) Through market operation. First of all, it is necessary to publicize the relevant information of geological and ecological environment management of old mines to the society and enter the market, some of which are national markets and some are regional markets. In operation, some can bid and auction, and some can be entrusted by agreement; Have a plenty of overall project bidding and debugging, have a plenty of technical service project bidding and debugging. Secondly, we should establish and improve the rules of market operation, including access conditions, technical standards, charging standards, engineering norms and so on. It is also necessary to cultivate and develop intermediary organizations, and there are many jobs that can be done through intermediaries to reduce administrative intervention.

(3) Cultivate and develop market players, that is, vigorously develop enterprises directly engaged in environmental governance and resource production. There may be the following situations:

(1) For projects with only environmental benefits but no resource and economic benefits, technical service contracting can be implemented, engineering technical service enterprises can be cultivated, and the survival of the fittest can be selected through market competition.

(2) Projects that have both environmental benefits, resource benefits and economic benefits, but the resource benefits and economic benefits are not profitable. Preferential policies such as fixed subsidies, tax incentives and discount loans can be implemented to help enterprises with advantages through market competition.

(3) For projects with resource benefits and economic benefits, the responsible subject should make a special evaluation to basically grasp the benefit status. For projects with obvious differential benefits, it is necessary to share the differential benefits through market bidding and auction; For projects without differential income, they can be operated by administrative authorization, but we should also pay attention to the market mechanism and cultivate advantageous enterprises.