The first China Mining Technology Innovation and Sustainable Development Forum was held in Shanghang County, Fujian Province, from September 10 to 11. Chen Jinghe, Chairman of Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd., delivered a speech titled "Green, High-Quality and Sustainable Development of Mining Engineering," presenting Zijin Mining's practical achievements in green and high-quality development.
Chen Jinghe said that mining development is essentially just one of many geotechnical engineering projects. Due to historical and cognitive limitations, traditional mining development was once regarded as an environmental destroyer. However, modern geotechnical projects such as highways, high-speed railways, and park landscapes have earned wide acclaim for their "high aesthetic value" because they place great emphasis on ecological restoration. In fact, mining engineering can also achieve ecological restoration and high aesthetic value.
"Modern mining projects can fully achieve harmony between development and the environment. Zijin Mining's practice and development demonstrate that the mining industry can absolutely achieve green, high-quality and sustainable development," Chen Jinghe said.
At the forum, Chen Jinghe introduced the green and high-quality development practice of the Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine. He said that as a practitioner of green and high-quality development, the mine has become an excellent case of green and high-quality development of low-grade resources through continuous technological innovation.
In the 1980s, the Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine achieved a major prospecting breakthrough, and its achievements won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the first prize of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources for prospecting. After that, the mine continued to innovate its thinking, leading to major changes in resource utilization.
Chen Jinghe said that thereafter, the Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine continuously optimized its processes in all links. In particular, targeting the acidic wastewater containing different concentrations of copper from Zijinshan, Zijin coupled deep extraction, selective precipitation, membrane mass-transfer separation with a biological copper extraction system, essentially achieving zero wastewater discharge. Through screening native plants with strong tolerance for soil improvement, it successfully restored the ecological environment of the large-scale mine.
"Zijinshan has become a national industrial tourism demonstration site, built a national mine park, been included in the national green mine list, and received honors such as the National Demonstration Base for Comprehensive Utilization of Resources. Green has become a new calling card for the company's development," Chen Jinghe said.
Chen Jinghe also introduced the current status of China's mining industry. He said that China's resource reserves and consumption are severely imbalanced. In 2019, China's shares of global reserves of major metal resources were 7% for gold, 4% for copper, 9.6% for iron, and 9% for zinc; while in the same year, China's shares of global consumption of major metals were 23% for gold, 47% for copper, 53% for iron, and 48% for zinc. Taking copper concentrate as an example, the external dependence ratio rose from 61% in 2007 to 76% in 2019. Iron ore's external dependence ratio rose even faster, from 67% in 2013 to nearly 90% last year.
At the same time, China's metal mining enterprises have relatively low profitability. According to the "2019 Report on the Development of China's Top 500 Enterprises" released by the China Enterprise Confederation, the average net profit of the metal mining enterprises on the list was only RMB 200 million, with a return on net assets of 0.92%; while the average net profit of the 500 enterprises on the list was RMB 7.1 billion, with a return on net assets of 9.65%.
"All these highlight the urgent need for green and high-quality development solutions in the mining industry, such as developing large quantities of low-grade, difficult-to-process mineral resources through a series of technological and management innovations," Chen Jinghe said.