We pursue gold and silver, but care more about clear water and green mountains

——Introduction to the environmental protection of Zijin Mining Group

Zijin Mining Group attaches great importance to the environmental protection of its mines during its development and construction. It adheres to the guideline "Prevention comes first in environmental protection" and the principles "Never develop enterprises at the cost of environment deterioration & "Making development with protection while protecting the environment during development". The Company implements a sustainable development strategy for the mines, ensuring a coordinated and healthy development of various undertakings including environmental protection and mining. It promises that all mines to be constructed will be built into "green mines". 

Let's take the core enterprise Zijinshan Mining Area as an example. In the last few years, over one hundred million Yuan has been invested in its environmental protection and water reservation projects. It comes up with the objective "Building Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine into a fine example of environmental protection for mines across the country". And the project of "Ecotourism Mine of Zijinshan Gold Mining Industry" has been carried out. On New Year's Day of 2004，the first phase of this project "Industrial Tourism of Zijinshan Gold Mine" officially opened to the public. Before long, it was labeled as "A National Experimental Unit for Industrial Tour" and was listed among the first National Mine Parks. With the development of Zijinshan Gold Mine, Zijin Mining Group has summarized a package of experience in the management of environmental protection: 

I. To implement national laws and regulations on environmental protection，establish and improve environmental protection management system

During various construction phases of the project, relevant regulations are observed, such as national Environmental Protection Law, Administrative Directions on Environmental Protection of Construction Projects, and Environmental Impact Assessment Law, etc. Strictly in accordance with the conclusion and replied views on the environmental assessment, the "Three simultaneity" (simultaneous design, simultaneous construction and simultaneous commissioning for the construction of main projects and that of environmental protection facilities) management of the environmental protection is carried out for the construction projects. Investment in the Three Simultaneity of environmental protection accounts for about 22% of the total investment in main construction, which fully meets the demand of the state regulation on the investment in environmental protection for construction projects. 

The Company has established the Security & Environmental Protection Committee and the Security Management Division. And environmental protection and water reservation bodies have been set up in the mines, plants and workshops. A comparatively sound system of environmental protection management, which is in the charge of the principal leaders of the Company，have thus come into being together with a management network from the top down. Board of Directors of the Company has brought forward "Special Resolution on Effective Measures to Strengthen the Environmental Protection and Safe Work of Zijinshan Gold Mine", and worked out "Company Guideline for Environmental Protection Management" and "Economic Rewards and Punishments for Responsibilities of Safe Production, Environmental Protection, Public Security and Fire Protection". Detailed management rules and regulations are prepared for individual subordinate mines and plants so that the tasks for environmental protection are materialized and represented by indexes. By putting the management into effect and detailing the system level by level，a full set of effective management system has been formed covering from routine management to supervision and assessment. Advanced ideas of environmental protection and experiences in environmental management have been introduced in and borrowed from home and abroad. A target responsibility system on security and environmental protection is being practiced. The chain of responsibility is extended to the production frontline and implemented in each link of production, by each plant, each team or even each person. As a result, the leadership in place and the responsibility to each role are ensured.

Through the publicity and education of environmental protection laws & regulations and knowledge of environmental protection in various forms such as intranet, newspapers & periodicals of the enterprise, publicity columns, etc, a mode of mine environmental management has been formed that maintains a high sense of responsibility for the environment and ensures that everybody is conscientiously environment-friendly.

II. To ensure the success of mine planning & management，and deepen the control on enterprise contamination

According to the overall objective and demand of building a domestic example of mine with sound environmental protection, and on the basis of a complete survey and argumentation of the environmental protection of the mine, the general planning and layout is designed by state approved Grade A design unit Nanchang Non-ferrous Metallurgical Design Research Institute. Qualified design and research units including Ma On Shan Mine Research Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Changchun Gold Design Institute, Longyan Survey & Design Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power, etc were entrusted to complete the research on the stability of side slopes of open pits and dumping sites, the sustainable development and environment planning of Zijinshan Mining Area, the project design for comprehensive utilization of solid waste of Zijinshan Gold Mine and its environment improvement, the individual design of various embankment, etc. Construction units are selected and determined through bidding. Qualified supervision units and quality inspection units are entrusted to carry out overall supervision on the project construction and environmental protection. And a series of key environmental protection projects have been successively completed, including Beikou Chishui--Dadongbei--Tingjiang Cave of Water Diversion & Flood Control, Beikou Jiangshandong Side Slope Dam, Xinwuxia Dam for Ore Residues Blocking, Ermiaogou Jinzi Lake Arch Dam, Sanqingting Dam, etc. As a result, the capacity of Zijinshan Mining Area to defend against natural disasters has been significantly increased. The incidents of disastrous mudflow have been significantly reduced and the disaster brought by mudflows has been put under control.  

Environment-friendly processing technique is preferred to traditional control of the source for final improvement of pollutants from mining enterprises. With respect to waste water improvement, on-line systems for monitoring pollutants of the outfall wastewater treatment system are installed at the three outfalls of the Mining Area by means of combining engineering measures with control measures according to the concept of diverting clear water from polluted water, using industrial waste water in closed circulation and discharging it after standard treatment. Thus the cyan-containing waste water is made sure to be discharged according to permitted emission standard. And reduction, recycling and environment-friendly treatment of solid waste are realized.

According to the monitoring and assessment of the department of environment protection, the discharge concentration of various pollutants in the outfall wastewater from the three outfalls of Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine has steadily reached the country-level emission standard in each of the past three years. Leaching toxicity of all dumped waste residues meets the permitted standard. No total cyanide, which is a typical factor of pollution during mine exploitation, has been detected from the surface water of Tingjiang River. The probability of either total copper or total arsenic being detected is less than 5%, and the concentration of total copper or total arsenic falls well under the national water standard of Grade II. In 2006, Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine discharged 4.26 million tons of waste water, 17.86kg total cyanide and 104.73kg total copper, either of which is far below the total amount control index (4.73 million tons, 108kg & 2.365 tons respectively) issued by the Municipal Environmental Protection Administration. The waste water discharged from the ore per ton is only 1.6% of the water discharge amount permitted by the state （8.0m3 / T ore）.

III. To practice the certification of international environmental management system and establish a new mode of mine environmental management

In August 2004，Zijinshan Gold Mine was awarded the Environment Management System Certification IS014001：1996 by China Certification Center for Quality Mark（CQM）. In September 2004，Zijinshan Gold Mine and Gold Smeltery of Zijin Mining Group were invited as the representatives of Enterprises of Excellence with Certification to the IQNeT (International Certification Network) Forum held in Beijing and both of them won the Innovative Management Award. 

Zijinshan Gold Mine is now undergoing the QHSE certification that involves the systems of quality control, occupational health security management & environmental management. Aiming at improving social benefit and ensuring the health security of the staff，the mine construction was promoted to a higher level. 

IV. To speed up the pace of revegetation and ensure the success of water and soil conservation

According to the demand of the examined and approved Water & Soil Conservation Plan, Zijinshan Gold Mine carries out the annual revegetation plan by combining engineering and vegetation measures and gradually realizes revegetation in line with the principle of "stabilizing a plot before starting another". Thus the water and soil conservation of the Mine is carried out in a planned way step by step. On the basis of ecological engineering principle which integrates biological and engineering methods and by taking advantages of arbor，shrub, grass & flower, the Mine will be built into a compound ecosystem integrating trees, grass and mine. On one hand, engineering measures were taken，mainly including the construction of water interception and flood control facilities to prevent the erosion of rainwater in the form of channel flow and the construction of the residues blocking dam, the water & mud blocking dam, the tailing dam and breast walls; On the other hand, vegetation measures were taken through forestation of the stable yard, road bank and tailings pond by combining grass, shrub, arbor and vines. Since its establishment, Zijinshan Gold Mine has carried out the forestation test on five industrial sites and the greening on both sides of the roads successively by planting a variety of saplings, vines, trees and grass. Up to now, RMB 10.80 million Yuan has been invested in the planting for water & soil conservation of the Mining Area and over 2.11 million square meters of vegetation have been completed. A total of two million trees and 1.8 million square meters of grass planted have put the water loss and soil erosion caused by unstable creeps of the mining area basically under control. 

Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine has also set up a reserve fund for ecological restoration of closed mines to guarantee a stable fund resource for mine reclamation. RMB 50.855 Yuan had been used for this purpose till December 2006. 

V. To implement the Industrial Ecotourism Project, and promote the sustainable development of mines

In order to realize ecological reconstruction and green recovery of Zijinshan，to build an ecological scenic spot that integrates scientific survey and sight-seeing, to turn limited mineral resources to unlimited tourism resource and to make it possible for the resource of Zijinshan to be sustainably developed, the Company carried out the Industrial Ecotourism Project and successfully opened the Industrial Ecotourism Park of Zijinshan Mining Area in the New Year's Day of 2004 by taking advantage of the unique landform of Zijinshan and the curiosity of modern people on the exploitation of gold and copper mines. The scenic spot of Zijinshan Industrial Tourism has begun to take shape. In July 2004, it was listed among the first "Country-level Experimental Units of Industrial Tourism" approved by the National Tourism Administration. And in July 2005, it obtained the official approval of becoming a National Mining Park. The general objective of the environmental protection of the enterprise is to build Zijinshan Mining Area into a national example of mine with sound environmental protection and a mining area for industrial ecotourism and turn it into a "gold mountain" that never runs out.

VI. Environmental protection of Zijinshan Mining Area won the acknowledgement of environmentalists from home and abroad

In 2001，Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences completed a systemic planning and evaluation of the status quo of the environmental protection of Zijinshan Mining Area. The evaluation of the Academy was as follows: “Compared with other domestic mines from the same industry, its environmental pollution has been effectively put under control and its overall development will not bring much impact on the regional environment. During its exploitation, Zijinshan Gold Mine mostly features a series of technical economical indexes typically of the comprehensive utilization of low-grade ores. These indexes rank at the top of mines particularly the gold mines at home and abroad. Beikou Multi-purpose Waste Rock Project, its disposing and dumping technique, comprehensive utilization of waste water, etc give a comparatively good attention to both the improvement of processing technique and the demand on environmental protection. Therefore, pollutant discharge amount and the pressure on environment improvement projects are both reduced beginning from the source. And the supporting technology and the material basis for sustainable development are made available. During the exploitation and construction of the mine, environmental protection is attached great importance. Various environment improvement projects have brought obvious effects, such as a good control on cyanide, no apparent change of the water quality of Tingjiang River before and after the mine exploitation，proper water-and-soil conservation, etc. It sets up a fine example of gold mine exploitation. With continuous efforts, the sustainable development of Zijin Mining Area will be realized and a fine example of mine with sound environmental protection will be established."

Environmentalists from the internationally recognized mining industry consultant company SRK, after their survey at Zijinshan Gold Mine in 2002, said that "The achievements made by Zijinshan Gold Mine on environment protection have come to an advanced international standard".

On 28 December 2002，relevant leaders and specialists praised to a comparatively high extent the environmental protection of Zijinshan Gold Mine at the on-site meeting of environmental protection acceptance check on the Phase IV Technology-improved Project of Zijinshan Gold Mine. 

At the 3rd general meeting of science and technology of Zijin Mining Group held on 17 October 2004，six academicians from Chinese Academy of Engineering highly acknowledged the achievements made by Zijin on environmental protection. Academician Chen Yuchuan said, “I visited Zijinshan in 1994, when I was the Chief Engineer of Ministry of Geology and Minerals. I came here today ten years later to be surprised at its great changes and rapid & healthy development. I am particularly impressed by its environmental protection. The mining area is so large, and the mountain slopes are so steep. However, sodium cyanide was used without causing pollution. Even there is some amount discharged, the permitted standard can be met. It would have been impossible without the great importance the leaders attached or a good management."  “Two factors are very important in mine exploitation. Firstly, science & technology as well as a good management are needed to achieve economic benefits; secondly, environmental benefit is to be achieved by attaching importance to environmental protection. Zijin is good at these two points. The mines to be developed by Zijin Mining Group should be built into green mines."  Academician Pei Rongfu said，“It is the environmental protection of Zijin that deeply impressed me. Your Industrial Ecotourism Project is very special." Academician Zhang Wenhai said, “I have been to Iran, Brazil, Turkey, the USA, etc to make investigations on mines there. The issue of their mining areas environmental protection has not yet been well addressed. However, when I arrived at Zijinshan on October 16th, I saw the mine vegetation was well protected and that the Industrial Ecological Tourism project had been developed. Zijinshan was just like a garden-style mining area, which was seldom seen among the mines alike. "

On 31 August 2004，a Joint Inspection Team involving State Environmental Protection Administration, Ministry of Land and Resources and State Administration of Work Safety Supervision carried out a special law enforcement inspection of mine ecological environmental protection at Zijinshan Gold Mine. The inspection team said that the ecological environmental protection and improvement at Zijinshan Gold Mine was comparatively comprehensive and thorough and that they were unique in aspects such as reduction, recycling & environment-friendly treatment of solid waste, the monitoring on waste water, revegetation as well as the practice of certification of international environment management system, etc. It was the first time the national environmental protection administration departments had ever made appraisal on the environmental protection of Zijinshan Gold Mine.

In 2006, environmental protection of Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine won rather high praise during the experimental environmental behavior evaluation of Fujian 100 Enterprises. The Mine was rated "Very Good", which is the highest ranking among the opinion rating of "Very Good, Good, Normal, Poor, & Very Poor" and meets the standard of "green" enterprise.