On January 8 this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced the list of 953 mining enterprises included in the national green mine directory, among which the Potaoshan-Jigongshan flux limestone mine and another mine under Hubei Wuxue Minben Mineral Resources Development Co., Ltd. were prominently listed, becoming the first batch of national-level green mines officially included in the directory management.
When talking about the innovative experience in green mine construction, the company's chairman, Lv Wenlong, said with insight: "Green is the foundation of a mining enterprise. Only by prioritizing concepts and strengthening the foundation can we achieve stability and long-term success."
A corner of the mining area
Spirit Leads, Concepts First
Minben Mineral Resources Development Co., Ltd. is located in Wuxue City, known as 'Little Wuhan', adjacent to the beautiful Yangtze River. It has built a modern solid-liquid treatment center, a closed belt corridor transportation system, and a modern high-pile dock, making it a beautiful landscape along the Yangtze River.
Adjacent to the Yangtze River, it enjoys the natural advantage of river navigation, but also faces tremendous pressure on the ecological environment. Especially under the current situation of 'jointly promoting major protection and not engaging in major development', exploring new paths for ecological priority and green development, and building an ecological barrier for the Yangtze River, how to achieve coordinated development of ecological protection and mining development through green mine construction has become increasingly crucial.
"To achieve success, one must first cultivate the heart." A good belief can lead to a good team and win battles. The company has assessed the situation and organized all party members to study the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party and the documents from the Ministry of Natural Resources regarding green mine construction. They have also conducted transmission and publicity within the company by team units, allowing everyone to align with the party's rhythm and the rhythm of mine development concepts, completely abandoning the traditional mindset of 'dust on sunny days and mud on rainy days.'
"Concepts are the forerunners of action. Only by truly recognizing the significant importance of green mine construction from the depths of the soul and turning thoughts into actions can we steadfastly and sincerely build green mines," said Lv Wenlong.
Based on unifying thoughts and enhancing awareness, the company began top-level design and overall planning for green mine construction. They established a special leadership group for green mines, using '6S' management as a starting point, aligning with the construction requirements for green mine development, rectifying and implementing each standard one by one, and finally having the green mine leadership group analyze the completion of each indicator in a timely manner. For those that do not meet standards, immediate rectification is required, striving for every indicator to meet or exceed national standards.
Green Environmental Protection, Precise Policies
Green mine construction involves multiple aspects. The company starts from every link and detail of the mine, meticulously refining and striving for excellence. In the mining phase, they adopt a top-down stepped mining method, with a step height design of 15 meters, using medium-deep hole micro-differential blasting, with each hole having a millisecond delay detonation, and employing a hole-by-hole blasting process to technically control the blasting charge and vibration. The company also uses advanced wet drilling technology from Chudao Rock Drilling Company, with drilling machines adopting 'oil-to-electric' technology, ensuring safety and environmental protection without diesel exhaust emissions, and no dust generated during drilling, achieving high efficiency and compliance with green mine standards. Additionally, during the excavator loading and truck transportation phases, water trucks are used on-site to spray water for dust suppression, and spraying facilities are installed on both sides of the main roads in the mining area for continuous dust suppression. They also require trucks to pass through a wheel washing machine for automatic cleaning before entering the site or leaving the factory, ensuring that the vehicle body and tires are clean and hygienic, preventing mud from being taken onto the road and polluting the surface.
In the crushing and processing phase, the company uses a wet processing technology throughout, with spraying, mist cannon, and dry vacuum cleaner facilities installed in the processes of cone crushing, vibrating screening, and fine sand processing. At the same time, the company implements full enclosure in the processing workshop and installs mist cannon dust suppression and dry vacuum cleaning facilities in the enclosed workshop, combining to handle dust in the processing phase with a three-in-one dust suppression method of 'water suppression, spray suppression, and dry suction', ensuring no dust is generated or overflowed during processing. They have also built a fully enclosed belt corridor system from the mining area to the dock, avoiding many disadvantages of truck transportation. Furthermore, they have enclosed all areas in the mining processing process that are prone to noise with factory sheds, and soundproof barriers have been installed on both sides of the corridor, ensuring noise treatment meets national standards.
To enhance the comprehensive utilization of resources and develop a circular economy, the company has invested over 50 million yuan to establish a solid-liquid center for tailings separation to treat the muddy wastewater generated during processing. The mud cake filtered out by the solid-liquid center is used for backfilling pits and ecological restoration of the mine. The wastewater processed through filtration is turned into clean water for reuse in production, achieving a cycle of water resource utilization.
"After the solid-liquid separation process, the tailings are used for filling pits and ecological restoration, and clean water is recycled, with the overall resource utilization rate of the mine exceeding 95%," Lv Wenlong stated. After research by Wuhan University, it was found that the mine mud cake can be used for brick making, and plans are underway to utilize tailings for a brick-making project. Currently, this project has signed an investment attraction agreement with the Wuxue Municipal People's Government and is set to settle in the Makou New Building Materials Industrial Park.
Technology Revitalizes Mining, Harmonious Development
The company always adheres to the guiding ideology that 'technology is the primary productive force', continuously increasing investment in technology, improving the technological innovation system, and establishing a technology innovation leadership organization led by the general manager, with the deputy general manager and engineers as members. At the same time, the company actively engages in cooperation with Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Hubei Non-Metallic Geological Company, Hubei Yongye Hang, Deshi Hong, Wuhan University of Technology, and other universities and research institutes to establish an integrated technology research and development platform.
In recent years, the company has invested over 1 million yuan in the mine to establish a smart mining management system. This system includes a monitoring and publicity center, a remote monitoring system for open-pit mining, a remote supervision system for mining output, a remote video monitoring system for the mine, an online monitoring system for the mining environment, a remote supervision system for heavy machinery working conditions, a heavy machinery GPS positioning system, and an automatic control system for crushing and transportation systems, which can effectively monitor the mining production situation, output, illegal mining, environmental protection, safety, and other aspects in real-time. The corresponding remote supervision system also has various management functions such as querying, displaying, storing, replaying monitoring data, as well as data analysis, statistics, report output, and automatic warning, providing a basis for mining management work.
"The local environment nurtures the local people." The development of the enterprise also relies on the support of local residents. The company places great importance on the harmonious development of local economic growth and relationships with villagers, adhering to the concept of "developing a mine, protecting the local environment, and benefiting the local people." It provides strong support for local education and public welfare, and collaborates with nearby village committees in the form of "village-enterprise cooperation" to jointly build a tailings brick factory, allowing villagers to share in the benefits of the company's development. To establish a harmonious relationship with surrounding communities, the company has set up a dedicated organization to manage local relations, accept local complaints and suggestions, and has also formulated the "Stakeholder Management Operating Procedures" to standardize the relationship between the enterprise and its surroundings. During this year's pandemic, the company actively fulfilled its social responsibilities, donating over 1 million yuan to the Wuxue Charity Association, over 1 million yuan to the Wuxue Red Cross, and more than 200,000 yuan in cash and goods to nearby disadvantaged groups and heavily affected farmers.
"The construction of green mines is a comprehensive system project that cannot be accomplished overnight; it is a long-term endeavor that requires the company to make continuous efforts over several years or even decades. The visible greenness reflected in mine greening is the most basic condition, while the core lies in the transformation of ideas, the standardization of business operations, and the normalization of employee behavior. We, as 'the people', will not forget our original intention, take green development as our responsibility, and continuously improve the level of green mine construction to contribute to building an ecological barrier along the Yangtze River," said Lyu Wenlong.□
Website Editor: Gong Li