Inner Mongolia's mining environment changing a lot

By Liu Shangjing (chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-01-11

The Inner Mongolia autonomous region reports that it has put 985 million yuan ($149 million) into controlling the mining environment since 2012 in an area of 570 square kilometers of mines to bring greater harmony to the area and improve the environment with a visible effect.

There has been stricter enforcement of mining regulations, and the average capacity of a single mine has been raised to 1.88 million tons, the resources recovery rate to 60 percent, mechanization to more than 90 percent, metallic minerals recovery rate at 85 percent, and strip mining to 95 percent, enhancing the development and utilization of mineral resources.

With increased financial input,the government has urged the mining companies to take greater responsibility, so the Huolin Gol Old City Open-air Coal Co, a small private operation, has done reclamation work on more than 1,000 acres of land and has worked with the China Geological Environmental Monitoring Institute to develop a geological park and environmental controls.

At the same time, people's lives in the mining area have been improved, in line with area planning and development needs, and the government has worked on mine area relocation to ensure that people in the area can move out to make more money. The government has spent 10.3 billion yuan since 2012 on helping relocate 160,000 people and 20 million yuan on training to help nearly 20,000 immigrants get employment.

The conflicts between different ore areas have been resolved and the government has strengthened management over production and has shut down 1,268 mines while improving the mine scale.