Central ecological environment protection supervision office: China Minerals focuses on expansion and ignores environmental protection
2020-05-12 11:37:25 [Print]
On 11 May, the central ecological environment protection supervision office gave feedbacks regarding the inspection on China Minerals Corporation, noting that the company focused on expansion and ignored environmental protection in specific operation.
According to feedbacks, China Minerals acquired Gan County Hongjin Rare Earth to engage in rare earth business although it was fully aware of the gap between production capacity approval and construction; it allowed Hongjin Rare Earth and Dingnan Dahua to start construction before getting approval and gave production targets that exceeded EIA approval for many times when pollution control measures were not in place; its affiliated Luzhong Mining adopted caving method that was banned , resulting in collapse over an area of 11 hectares, and didn't carry out land reclamation.
Besides, environmental pollution and potential risk were obvious. China Minerals' Dingnan Dahua discharged industrial wastewater with chemical oxygen demand over more than ten times of standard level secretly; 20,000 tons of slag left by Zhuzhou Smelting Group after relocation, 12,000 tons of slag of China Minerals Copper, over 6,000 tons of arsenic caustic sludge of Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star, over 5,000 tons of heavy metal hazardous waste of Shuikoushan and over 1,000 tons of nickel iron slag weren't disposed timely, leading to potential environmental risk.
The office required China Minerals to prepare a rectification program based on the inspection report and submit to the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council in 30 working days. The program and implementation should be made public according to related provisions . The supervision team also conducted responsibility investigation on ecological environment damages that were found and formed a list, which was sent to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and leading Party group of China Minerals respectively in accordance with related procedures and authorities.
According to feedbacks, China Minerals acquired Gan County Hongjin Rare Earth to engage in rare earth business although it was fully aware of the gap between production capacity approval and construction; it allowed Hongjin Rare Earth and Dingnan Dahua to start construction before getting approval and gave production targets that exceeded EIA approval for many times when pollution control measures were not in place; its affiliated Luzhong Mining adopted caving method that was banned , resulting in collapse over an area of 11 hectares, and didn't carry out land reclamation.
Besides, environmental pollution and potential risk were obvious. China Minerals' Dingnan Dahua discharged industrial wastewater with chemical oxygen demand over more than ten times of standard level secretly; 20,000 tons of slag left by Zhuzhou Smelting Group after relocation, 12,000 tons of slag of China Minerals Copper, over 6,000 tons of arsenic caustic sludge of Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star, over 5,000 tons of heavy metal hazardous waste of Shuikoushan and over 1,000 tons of nickel iron slag weren't disposed timely, leading to potential environmental risk.
The office required China Minerals to prepare a rectification program based on the inspection report and submit to the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council in 30 working days. The program and implementation should be made public according to related provisions . The supervision team also conducted responsibility investigation on ecological environment damages that were found and formed a list, which was sent to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and leading Party group of China Minerals respectively in accordance with related procedures and authorities.