In August, the Central Plains has entered the harvest season.
On the northern slope of Phoenix Mountain in Gongyi City, a beautiful picture of the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, painted with green mountains and clear waters, is slowly unfolding: beautiful mining areas, picturesque scenic spots, peaceful and harmonious residential communities, and ecological agricultural picking gardens filled with grapes, all radiating the joy of harvest.
The vineyard built after ecological restoration
This is a microcosm of Henan Chenxia Industrial Co., Ltd. creating a new ecological mining enterprise upgrade version, centered on the "ecological restoration +" model of mining, integrating green mining + tourism + ecological agriculture + mining industrial parks.
Green development and transformation
The company started from the traditional sand and gravel aggregate industry. In recent years, with the comprehensive promotion of ecological civilization construction, the traditional sand and gravel aggregate industry has faced enormous challenges.
The traditional sand and gravel aggregate industry destroys the environment and vegetation, pollutes the air, and is contrary to the growing emphasis on environmental protection and ecological civilization construction in society. If this extensive resource extraction method is ignored, the development of the enterprise will inevitably fall into a dilemma. For many years, this issue has deeply troubled the people of Chenxia.
"Sand and gravel aggregates are essential for urban and rural construction, and developed countries and developed regions in China cannot do without this industry. Our problem is not with the product itself, but with our outdated production methods and business concepts." The company's chairman, Yue Tao, assessed the situation and decisively decided: to promote industrial upgrading, build green mines, and follow the path of green development!
In recent years, the company has focused on the construction of green mines while mining the entire Chengcheng mine, striving to solve the problem of balancing economic development with ecological preservation. They adhere to a combination of goal-oriented, problem-oriented, and result-oriented approaches, conducting in-depth research on every link and process in the construction of green mines, continuously improving, fully enclosing the processing and crushing workshop, and successively upgrading the mining extraction process, dust and noise reduction systems, and washing systems, minimizing the impact of sand and gravel processing on the surrounding ecological environment, making green and environmental protection the norm in the company's production.
At the same time, based on the mining and ecological restoration of the entire Chengcheng building stone mine, the company innovatively proposed the "mining restoration +" concept, planning the entire mine according to scenic area standards, synchronizing the planning and implementation of mining/restoration with the landscape and industry after mine closure. The process of mining/restoration is also the process of subsequent industrial construction, developing a new ecological mining enterprise 4.0 version that integrates green mining + tourism + ecological agriculture + building materials industrial parks, truly making the process of quarrying also the process of scenic area construction, and the day the mine closes is also the day the mining area becomes a scenic area.
After more than half a year of hard work, a modern factory embodying the concept of green environmental protection—Chengcheng Mine was built and put into production in Fengmengou Village, Xiaoguan Town, Gongyi City, and achieved first place in the green mine evaluation organized by the Henan Provincial Department of Natural Resources last year.
Careful layout and industrial integration
In 2014, the company entered Xiaoguan Town in Gongyi City to invest in the mining resource integration project, successively acquiring Chengcheng Mine, Youxin Mine, Jinshan Mine, and Wuzhantong Mine. Upon seeing the beautiful scenery of Phoenix Mountain marred by the unscientific mining of the original mines, they made a resolute decision to concentrate on mining Chengcheng Mine according to green mine standards and to close and restore the other three mines.
In August 2019, after Chengcheng Mine successfully passed the green mine acceptance, the company did not stop there, but while establishing a green development approach and promoting the upgrading of its main business, it began to plan its entry into high-efficiency agriculture and modern tourism.
The company understands that agriculture and tourism require significant investment, long cycles, and slow returns. Without the support of the secondary industry, the development of these two sectors will be severely restricted. Therefore, they focus on their main business, expanding capacity, and improving efficiency, using this as a foundation to develop agriculture and tourism.
"Only by improving the efficiency of our main business can we have the foundation, momentum, and prospects for transforming into agriculture and tourism, ensuring the fundamental guarantee of green mountains and clear waters. Only such a transformation can be solid and sustainable," Yue Tao insightfully stated.
The company has introduced a new concept of "mining restoration +" comprehensive construction, closely integrating the governance of abandoned mines with agricultural and tourism project construction, engaging in agriculture where suitable and tourism where suitable. As the abandoned mines are treated, new agricultural or tourism projects will also be established. In practice, the company continuously invests the funds generated from mining profits into these two industries, ensuring the construction funds for both sectors and forming a new model of development that nourishes the primary and tertiary industries with secondary industry profits.
"The connotation of ‘+’ is rich, and the industries organically combine and promote mining restoration, achieving twice the result with half the effort, benefiting the government, villagers, and enterprises." When discussing the company's "mining ecological restoration +" model, Yue Tao spoke enthusiastically, "+ agriculture" focuses on developing a unique plan for ecological sightseeing agriculture, organically combining agriculture and tourism; "+ tourism" transforms existing resources in the mining area into tourism resources, realizing their resource value through tourism development; "+ building materials" extends the industrial chain of mineral products, developing building materials industrial parks, creating bases for prefabricated buildings and ancient architecture; "+ real estate" utilizes the construction land nature of abandoned mines, planning to use the superior areas and natural environment around the mountains for real estate development; "+ automotive park" utilizes the mining site of Jinshan Mine to inject the theme of "automotive sports" for developing unique leisure experiences; "+ education" combines with educational training bases to save construction costs and enhance safety education, natural knowledge, industrial knowledge, etc.; "+ party building" establishes party branches to enhance the cohesion of grassroots party organizations, assisting rural revitalization and building harmonious mining community relations.
Fortunately, this model of the company has taken root and begun to bear fruit. In agriculture, the company focuses on constructing the pastoral landscape project located in Fengmengou Village. They use mine slag to level the land, combining mine restoration with land consolidation. Although the soil after consolidation is poor, it has been transformed into organic farmland free from traditional pesticide and fertilizer pollution after improvement.
In the tourism sector, the company utilizes the plasticity of abandoned mines, transforming existing resources in the mining area into tourism resources with a landscape and ecology-first approach. They are building the Yuhua Valley Leisure Tourism Area in Dashanhua Village, turning the process of mine restoration into the development process of tourism projects, effectively utilizing the mountainous characteristics to develop specialty tourism projects and saving on secondary construction costs. So far, they have completed 20 kilometers of mountain trails and are constructing the 'Cloud Series' hotels, sinkholes, and more.
The advantage of abandoned mines lies in their land indicators and strong plasticity. We can 'make a story' around these, building on the basis of abandoned mines while conducting restoration as needed for construction. The restoration provides a foundation for construction, and the process of restoration is also a process of construction. Yue Tao further exemplified that for the currently mined Quancheng Mine, we combine long-term planning with current mining, addressing post-mining issues in advance, planning the mining area as a 'sinkhole' tourism project, and mining according to the sinkhole's plan. At the same time, we plan the mountainous features of Wuzhantong Mine as an automotive sports park; after transforming the rich red leaf resources and original depressions of Jinshan Mine into an artificial lake, we design it as a red leaf park and 'research study education training base.'
The 'Ecological Restoration +' model created by the company, based on the green and sustainable development concept of 'not only gold and silver mountains but also green water and lush mountains,' has received unanimous recognition from various levels of party committees and governments. The then Deputy Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, Deng Kai, along with major leaders from the Henan Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Gongyi City, visited the project area to inspect and guide the work, giving close attention and full affirmation to the company's approach.
Ecological Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization
In the past, the Phoenix Mountain area had barren land, inconvenient transportation, poor basic conditions for farmers, and poverty. The company takes the strong support and help from various levels of party committees and governments as motivation to give back to society, actively undertaking social responsibility, leveraging its advantages, and participating in the poverty alleviation work in Gongyi City through industrial implantation.
The company focuses on ensuring that villagers have guaranteed food, improved housing, job opportunities, and chances to get rich, implementing measures such as job placement, land transfer, relocation, and ecological development. Through the mining restoration implantation project, they drive the construction of surrounding infrastructure, develop modern agriculture and tourism, and create a rural complex, providing employment opportunities and chances for wealth to the provincial-level poor village Dashanhua Village and surrounding residents. They have also specifically planned a commercial town for villagers to provide supporting services for tourists in the tourism area. With the development of tourism in the region and the increase in visitor flow, the path for local people to escape poverty and become prosperous will become broader.
So far, the company has completed the laying of basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, and roads in the project area, built 110 sets of poverty alleviation relocation houses, and completed the first batch of poverty alleviation relocation. The 'Yuhua Valley Rural Complex Project' passed the expert review organized by the Zhengzhou Agricultural Committee on October 27, 2018.
The company also insists on combining mine restoration with education and training bases, utilizing the terrain and landforms of the mine restoration area to build education and training bases, providing safety education, natural knowledge education, industrial knowledge education, and more to all sectors of society. Currently, they have reached a cooperation agreement with the Xingzhi Education Group to jointly invest in the construction of 'Natural Sensory Theme Park' and 'Research Study Base.'
We will start from traditional mining, focus on green mine construction, aim for tourism development and the transformation of 'mining restoration +', and target a diversified enterprise group that integrates primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. We will expand nationwide in the investment of sand and gravel aggregate projects, mining operations, and develop a sand and gravel trading center, railway logistics park, and building materials industrial park in Xiaoguan Town. While further strengthening and expanding our main business, we will continue to do a good job in mine ecological restoration, striving to make the 'mining restoration +' model shine and strengthen, promoting it nationwide.
The goal is in the distance, and action is at our feet. Perhaps in the near future, mines will no longer be scars of human impact on nature, but magical dwellings and poetic spaces created from ruins. The abandoned mines on Phoenix Mountain will become a beautiful journey for Chenxia Company.
Website Editor: Gong Li