Virgin forests to be protected from ill effects of mining

While encouraging the development of the mining industry in the Greater Khingan Range, the country's largest virgin forest, local authorities are promising that they will do their best to minimize environmental damage.

Zhou Yaming, deputy director of the Department of Land and Resources of Heilongjiang province, said that by the end of 2016 minerals, including 1 million tons of copper and 150 tons of gold, will be added to the region's total mineable reserves.

"All the mineral exploitation must meet the standards of environmental protection because a virgin forest is a fragile ecosystem," said Chen Xingshi, deputy chief engineer of the Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration Bureau of Heilongjiang province.

The environmental standards were launched by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2010, which required all mines to meet the demands before 2020.

The requirements include that more than 90 percent of the wastewater from an environmentally friendly mine should be recycled and more than 80 percent of the mining area should be covered by trees.

In addition to the strict thresholds, Chen added, fresh mines in forests will not be dug with a vast open pit, but in a small deep pit to reduce the impact on the environment.

Chen said part of the profits in the mining industry will be used in environmental recovery.

An accurate geological survey will be finished to spot potential mineral belts in the Greater Khingan Range before 2015, according to Zhou.

It is a win-win situation that boosts the local economy and compensates the environment, he added.

"The Greater Khingan Range has two kinds of treasure - strictly protected forests and minerals. If we don't develop the mining industry, the local economy can't grow quickly," said Zhang Hongwei, head of the Inner Mongolia No 6 Geological Survey Institute, adding that environmental protection should be taken into consideration.

But the locals hold different opinions.

An anonymous ranger who has protected forests in the Greater Khingan Range for two decades said the mining industry is a disaster to forests and is "like a scar on a human body".

"It will pollute the water, air and soil," he added.

Chen also has worries about pollution, because mineral processing will discharge polluted water and solids, which can be minimized through advanced technology, but at a high cost.

But 40-year-old Li Xiuyun, a worker at Mohe Forest Farm, thinks that compared with the limited pollution, the increased income brought by the mining industry is more attractive because her 19-year-old daughter will enter university in Shanghai in September and the high tuition fee, about 12,000 yuan ($1,900) a semester, is a big burden for the family.

"My husband and I earn about 800 yuan each month and we have to borrow money from relatives for our daughter's tuition," Li said, adding that many of her colleagues cannot make ends meet by working in forest farms.

According to the Greater Khingan Range statistics bureau, the average per capita income in the area in 2011 was 12,480 yuan, which is less than 60 percent of the national average.

The range extends roughly 1,200 kilometers from north to south, is from 100 km to 300 km wide, and is covered by dense forests that are listed in the key prospective mining areas by the Ministry of Land and Resources.

wangqian@chinadaily.com.cn