Following the clear steps of Chinese harmonious mining areas’ construction
Source: www.chinamining.com.cn Citation: www.chinamining.com.cn Date: Nov. 12th 2013
Building harmonious mining areas is a common demand of modern civilized society for mining development.
Since 70`s in last century, countries of developed mining industry have formulated relevant laws to establish the benefit-sharing mechanism. By means of signing interests-related access protocol with residents in the mining areas, it guaranteed their rights of development and promoted economic and social development in mining areas.
In 2002, the Earth Summit Conference on sustainable development passed the "Johannesburg plan", putting forward to improve the mining, minerals and metals’ contribution to sustainable development.
In Sep.2007, the World Summit on sustainable development put forward "Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative", focusing on resource revenue transparency and accountability, ensuring the countries and their people`s whole benefit from natural resources mining.
In China, there are about 100000 mines at present, and mining output reaches 6000billion Yuan. The sustainable development of the mining industry has made great contribution to the Chinese industrialization and urbanization. But because of the interest disputes, mineral development environmental pollution and safety accidents in production, certain social disharmonious factors have been induced in some places.
Wang Kun, vice director of mineral development division of Ministry of Land and Resources, was interviewed by the reporter of Chinese Mining Newspaper and said, “ In the development process of resources, we should achieve the harmony not only between man and nature, but also between man and man. The harmony between man and nature means the coordination among exploitation of mineral resources and its high efficient use and environmental protection. The harmony between man and man means the harmony of mining enterprises and the surrounding community. And to carry out the harmonious mining areas’ construction, to promote the healthy development of mining, to increase the residents’ income continuously , and to develop the local economy stably are inevitable choices of Chinese mining industry stepping out of the primary stage of original and extensive, and entering into the advanced stage of efficient, green, safe and harmonious” .
Yao Huajun, Dean of Institute of Economic Research of Chinese land and Resources , put forward that pooling of interest is a very important issue in the building of a harmonious mine, and the premise is to establish a communicative mechanism of standard, transparent and mutual trust. Yao Huajun thinks, the competent departments of land and resources, or the government functional departments which undertake to design and promote the harmonious mining areas’ construction system should pay more attention to the maintenance of land , interests related to mineral resources and rights protection. The Ministry of Land and Resources put forward the "conservation development, protecting resources, protecting rights and interests", which has close relations with the harmonious mining areas’ construction. Management of the administrative department of Land and Resources should gradually take conservation and intensiveness as the major purpose and incline to the strategic layout of investment in the ecological civilization.
In fact, Chinese is exploring to construct harmonious mining areas. The pilots are promoting in an orderly way, top design is perfecting, the relevant concepts are being matured, and on the key issues, a consensus has been formed. More importantly, about the building of harmonious mining areas, the Ministry of Land and Resources has specific ideas and steps, with the overall goal "build four mechanisms, achieve the two aspects of harmony, achieve the same goal". At the same time, "Guidance on Harmony Mining Areas’ Construction " and "Evaluation Index System", being repeatedly commented and changed, are being matured.
We might expect and hope, because constructing harmonious mining areas is not only related to scientific development of mining, but also related to the change of development mode of mining industry, the sustainable development of mining area, stability, tranquility and well-being of the people in the mining areas.
Lenses playback
4 o’clock in the afternoon on 4th Nov, No.214, 2 floor conference room Tianjin Mei Jiang Convention and Exhibition center. The theme of the Forum: Building Harmonious Mining Areas.
Although this is arranged as the last forum in that afternoon , presenting representatives and the media being tired, all seats are occupied.
This sub forum has been held for the second time in Chinese International Mining Conference. “With the promotion of ecological civilization construction in recent years, the construction of a harmonious mining area has gradually become the consensus of the government, enterprises and the public, and some local governments and enterprises have made a lot of research in this field. At the same time, the international peers also bring a lot of worth of sharing experience.” moderator Yao Huajun’s opening words are concise and straight to the theme. He is the Dean of Institute of Economic Research of Chinese land and Resources and also expert in this area.
The construction of harmonious mining areas depends on top-level system design
“Since 70`s in last century, countries of developed mining industry have formulated relevant laws to establish the benefit-sharing mechanism. By means of signing interests-related access protocol with residents in the mining areas, it guaranteed their rights of development and promoted economic and social development in mining areas. In 2002, the Earth Summit Conference on sustainable development passed the "Johannesburg plan", putting forward to improve the mining, minerals and metals’ contribution to sustainable development. In Sep. 2007 , the World Summit on sustainable development put forward "Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative", focusing on resource revenue transparency and accountability, ensuring the countries and their people`s whole benefit from natural resources mining.” said Wang Kun, vice director of mineral development division of Ministry of Land and Resources. He thinks the building of harmonious mining areas is an irresistible trend.
In China, there are about 100000 mines at present and mining output reaches 6000billion Yuan. The sustainable development of the mining industry has made great contribution to the Chinese industrialization and urbanization. But because of the interest disputes, mineral development environmental pollution and safety accidents in production, certain social disharmonious factors have been induced in some places.
Wang Kun, vice director of mineral development division of Ministry of Land and Resources interviewed by the reporter of Chinese Mining Newspaper and said, in the development process of resources, we should achieve the harmony not only between man and nature, but also between man and man. The harmony between man and nature means the coordination among exploitation of mineral resources and its high efficient use and environmental protection. The harmony between man and man means the harmony of mining enterprises and the surrounding community. And to carry out the harmonious mining areas’ construction, to promote the healthy development of mining, to increase the residents’ income continuously, and to develop the local economy stably are inevitable choices of Chinese mining industry stepping out of the primary stage of original and extensive, and entering into the advanced stage of efficient, green, safe and harmonious .
He also briefed the participants on the remarkable achievements of harmonious mining areas’ construction of China in recent years. The first is Chinese government has carried out the pilot work in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Taking this opportunity, the local government explored to the establish benefit distribution system, conflict Investigation and Co-ordination Agency , conflict resolution mechanism, and improved the environmental control of mines and mining rights linkage system. The second is active exploration of other areas. Since 2007, Gui Zhou, Qing Hai and other provinces have introduced policies to encourage local government, mining enterprises, mining area residents to share the interests together. They actively adjust the structure of financial expenditure, strengthen mining companies’ social responsibility, and try to let the mining companies and the local governments construct, manage and share the interests together. The third is the industry organization actively promotes the construction of harmonious mining areas. Chinese Coal Association put forward the goal of building harmonious mining areas in 2020. China Chemical Mining Association together with Yunnan, Gui Zhou, Hunan, and Hu Bei provinces carried out resource conservation, environmental protection, mine safety harmonious association, and actively publicized Social Responsibility Report of this industry. Adhering to the concept of “Dedication of gold and silver, leaving the beautiful scenery ", Shandong Gold and a number of other mining companies actively promote the building of a harmonious mine areas, which became a typical model of Chinese mining.
Social responsibility: China mining enterprises are duty-bound
Mr. Zhong Hongwu, director of the center for the study of social responsibility of enterprises of China Academy of Social Sciences, made a speech on “the social responsibility report system of Chinese mining enterprises” in the forum. Under his leadership, the team has designed and written the social responsibility report for many domestic mining enterprises, and entrusted by the Ministry of Land and Resources, they have undertaken the research subject of the report system of mining companies’ social responsibility.
"The personality of the Chinese nation is characterized as introverted and low-key. Lei Feng never left his name for good deeds he did. But in order to encourage himself, he wrote them in the diary. So do the Chinese enterprises. Pursuing this philosophy, they try to be low-key. Personally speaking, the enterprises writing social responsibility report is the same as Lei Feng writing his diary. The difference is that personal diary would not be opened except to close friends, while social responsibility report should be actively opened, letting the community know what they do." Dr. Zhong Hongwu with a vivid metaphor, made it clear what is the sense of the system of social responsibility report of mining enterprise, which win the participants’ laughter.
So far this year, there are 1145 enterprises who have published social responsibility report and the mining enterprises accounted for 64. Among them, 56 are from state-owned mining enterprises, 7 are from the private mining enterprises, and 11 are from joint ventures of mining enterprises. In addition, China mining enterprises in overseas also released social responsibility report.
He said, there is a tendency, namely the stakeholders not only care whether the enterprises earn money or not, but also pay attention to environmental protection and investment in community construction. Thus a new form of communication -- corporate social responsibility report appeared, and it has also changed the traditional thinking of companies adhering to the "low-key" .In fact, the social responsibility report can be effective for enterprises to create a positive image to the public and to strengthen inner management. After published the social responsibility reports, many enterprises have changed their negative public image, and also found the weaknesses of their management.
The team led by Zhong Hongwu conducted a comparative study this year on the released social responsibility reports between Chinese and foreign mining companies, including 6 indexes as integrity, substantive, balance, comparability, readability and innovation. The result shows, both domestic and foreign mining companies have done a detailed disclosure of environmental protection, employee development, production safety and community relations, but foreign companies’ reports are more concentrated for example on corporate governance, and more rational and focused, while the domestic ones are a bit like a dragonfly, not deep enough. In addition, the foreign reports do better in coping with climate change and other prospective issues. In the community relations, foreign enterprises pay more attention to exert their advantages in resources, organize and participate in the construction, while the domestic enterprises give more focus on driving the employment and provide volunteer services. The negative information disclosure level of foreign enterprises is higher than domestic enterprises.
He believes that, overall, social responsibility report of mining enterprises in China is in a stage of rapid development, but compared with the international mineral companies, China mining corporate social responsibility report still lags behind, which should be further improved.
Trust, the foundation of constructing the harmonious mining areas
Mr. Ross Hamilton from the International Council on mining and metals (ICMM) is the only foreign speaker among the 6. He emphatically made a speech on how to get the trust of residents in mining areas.
International Council on mining and metals was founded in 2001 with the purpose to "improve the sustainable development ability of the mining and metallurgical industry". Now, its flag has gathered 21 mining and metals companies and 34 countries and regions of the mining association and the global commodity association. It has proposed a “MMSD” proposal of planning to implement the sustainable development of mining to ensure the sustainable exploitation of mineral resources.
He noted that it can help enterprises win the trust of the community residents by increasing transparency and letting stakeholders know what you want to do and what you are doing. As the saying goes, action style can make community believe the investors are reliable. “Trust is a long-term investment. It can be cultivated not only by time and patience, but also through constant interaction and dialogue between each other. In the face of many possible challenges, practical and reliable commitments are also necessary."
Talking about how to deal with the relations between mining development and social economic development and the stakeholders, especially the interests-share of community residents, he thinks, the key point of solving the conflicts of mining trade, mining development and impact on the life of local residents is transparency. It is also the key to coordinate the various stakeholders relationships. ICMM now has 10 principles of sustainable development, and has established the accountability process, which can ensure their openness and transparency in the process of implementation the project. There are more than 20 items in ICMM`s “service guide” instructing their members on how to improve the transparency of guidelines and safeguarding the interests of all parties of the provisions.
Hamilton thinks mining requires a long cycle and the water is very important for mining. In some lack of water resources places, the local residents need more and cleaner water. But mining development may pollute the water. They have found that, in the past 10 years, about half of the conflict was due to water resources. To solve the problem of water resources need a long-term consideration and plan, for example to the local residents, they may need a minimum of 30 years of long-term planning of water resources, which requires a macroscopic overall consideration and planning of the whole water resources. Meanwhile, the environmental governance, water resources and environment assessment of the entire basin water resources are also very important, for which the mining companies have unshakable responsibility.
He admits that, how to meet the demands of community residents in mining enterprises, and not let some residents price oneself out of the market is a global problem. Mining enterprises have to face a problem of cost of capital or input and output. They must know how to communicate effectively with the community and residents, understand the expectations of the local community, so that local residents can get the actual situation of mining enterprises. ICMM or its members, encountering this kind of problems, will build a communication mechanism and form a group, and let them handle these problems, for example, to communicate with the Australian aborigines.
He also said, ICMM is very happy to communicate with CEOs from some big companies on the problem of sustainable development, just like what Wang Kun talked about of how to realize the mutually beneficial and win-win purpose of the mine, local government and local residents. ICMM requires their Council members to have good performance in the aspect of sustainable development, and to comply with GSR standards stipulated by the council, i.e. according with the standard of social responsibility report.
He thinks, for mineral companies, the pressure of information disclosure and social responsibility is actually growing with each passing day. The way out is to implement the “Action Plan of transparency” and reach the performance standards of International Finance Corporation. Since they are engaged in mining, they must have the ability and determination to solve the problems caused by mining activities. They must look into the future and build the harmonious relationship with the local residents. Mining location can achieve harmonious development only through keeping good cooperative relations among all interests related parties.
China mining enterprises` exploration and practice
Harmonious mining area construction, not only need to have well-planned and practical top-level system design, but also need the local government`s support, and need the full participation and practice of mining enterprises. On the BBS, a few head of mining enterprises made speeches in the aspect of promoting the construction of harmonious mining area of exploration, practice and experience.
Han Jianguo, Shenhua group deputy general manager, took the new street temple mining area as an example, introduced the application of the group in the exploration and practice of the construction of harmonious mining area. New street temple mining area is the construction pilot of resource configuration, which is confirmed by both Ministry of Land and Resources and National Development and Reform Commission. In the mining area planning development, the group took harmonious mining area as the main line, and improved the system innovation, institutional innovation, technology innovation and mode innovation, based on the modernization of highly concentrated, strived to build a modern ecological and environmental protection field.According to his introduction, their specific practices are as follows. First is a carefully designed property, analysis of shared resource benefits, to balance the interests of all parties. Local government can obtain from the mining production every year, and used it to ensure long-term stability of the mining area farmers and herdsmen. Priority to solve local employment, established the enterprise benefit, to work for the mechanism of agriculture, improved people`s livelihood, fundamentally solve the contradiction between local and enterprise, realized the harmonious development. Second, innovated planning layout, realized saving and comprehensive utilization. With the advantage of a development main body of a mining area, used multiple well decorated jointly, construction scale of 85 million tons/year, realized the intensive production, compared with the traditional independent development layout, reduced resource pressure minus 20%. Actively adopted new technologies, new processes, new materials, new ideas, such as construction by TBM method for the first time, the greatly increased efficiency, the buried deep mine had played a demonstrative effect. Third is the study of application of the green mining, the mining area construction of ecological civilization. The mine area increased all kinds of environmental protection investment, research on biodiversity conservation technology, improved the level of comprehensive utilization, explored the establishment of a energy, products, waste recycling energy conservation and emissions reduction mode.According to Han Jianguo, by 2020, when the new street temple mining area southern one mine four wells completed and put into operation, according to the resources development and benefit sharing mechanism, local governments can obtain 5 billion Yuan of taxes and fees from the mining area development and of share out bonus of 200000 Yuan; Mining area ecological environment protection will be a remarkable achievement, all mine will reach green standards in mines, demonstration project will be succeed, thus for the coordinated development of ecological environment protection in the earth`s provided reliable technical support.China Minmetals Zhang Jingong introduced the successful experience of the company in terms of performance of social responsibilities. According to introducing, min-metals corporation established a sustainable development model with the characteristic of min-metals, called the "diamond model", included shareholders, employees, customers, government, environment, social six aspects, to create value min-metals, peaceful min-metals, green min-metals, integrity min-metals.
In recent years, the company in the fulfillment of social responsibility was mainly for three aspects work. First was a high quality release sustainable development report, promoting the standardization of the corporate social responsibility. Since 2007, the company published sustainable development report with international standards for the latest release every year. In order to achieve the quantitative assessment of the social responsibility of work, and promote the development of the social responsibility work more standardized, the company published the Min-metals Australia report in 2011, to become one of the companies firstly published overseas report, the report adopts double release in both English and Chinese, and goes through by the third party. Second, pay attention to the perspective-taking, listen to the voice of the various stakeholders and demands. To understand the real thoughts of various stakeholders, to enhance working authenticity and effectiveness of the corporate social responsibility, the company widely invited community, industry associations, academic institutions, etc., discussed about the sustainable development of China Min-metals.
According to introducing, after China Min-metals acquisition of Australia Ao Rui company`s major assets and Peru copper company, vigorously promoted the localization, maintained the good relationship and indigenous people. They didn`t send a management team to take over the company, only made decisions and management for key positions, and retained the original staff team. At present, China Min-metals foreign employees were about 7000 people, accounted for 98%. In the maintenance of community relations, MMT in Laos, through environmental protection investment, community building, local procurement, brought prosperity to the local economic development, the mining area per capita income increased by several times. In Peru, Min-metals company helped local infrastructure construction, supported the local education and health, popularized the agricultural technology, promoted the local economic construction, brought real boon to local residents.
When it comes to Chinese companies to "go out" and how to fulfill their social responsibilities, to establish a good relationship with local residents, Zhang Jingong thought that, must first have a common goals and interests, this is the premise. Only with the same goals and interests, the social responsibility can be changed from "want me to do" to "I want to do". Secondly, to pay attention to communication, especially in the performance of social responsibilities, and the related aspects of the communication is very necessary. Only communication can make you better understand the positions and intentions of both two sides, improved the work pertinence. Third is to have an open mind. Mining in mines, there will be more or less interference to the environment, how did the enterprise deal with this relationship? It should bring benefits for the enterprise and at the same time, also bring welfare to the communities and countries. Make harmonious mining area construction needed input, but not purely gave money for the construction of harmonious mining area.
Harmonious mining area need to be targeted, therefore, need to know what the residents of the community need to develop, do some government want to do without the ability to do things. If done well, the community`s support for you will be very large. In the long term, done well the relationship with the community, to create conditions for the sustainable development of the enterprise.
On the BBS, deputy general manager of Shandong Gold Group Hou Chengqiao introduced, the company adhered to the scientific development concept to properly handle the mine and environment, mining, mining relationship with local government and community. First is the company to develop the optimized resource development tools, the specific measures for realizing the resource saving; At the same time, vigorously promotes the comprehensive utilization of resources, subordinate to the mining recovery rate, on average, more than 94%. With the application of solar energy and geothermal energy, part of the mines realized profit and achieved "zero consumption". Second is to insist building a new mine with planting ten thousand trees, achieved green coverage of more than 40%, did leave green hills and water, which was the goal of protecting the environment. Third is to fulfill the social responsibility of state-owned enterprises, supported local economic development, for the benefit of the local, and harmony of community residents. The company invested three hundred million Yuan to improve mining area`s traffic facilities, widely absorbed residents` employment, improved the level of people`s life. Fourth is to adhere to the environmental protection index higher than the national standard, set up water pollution prevention and control system, minimized the impact on the local environment, won the trust of the local residents. Fifth is to achieve harmony with mine residents, to achieve "double zero" indicator. They invested about 1 billion Yuan focus on improving the mine hoisting system, safety facilities and tailings mining, constructed garden first-class level. Sixth is to the advance of science and technology, provided strong technical support for safety in mines. They were associated with several scientific research institutes to carry out the research work, the key to solve the large-scale mining of mining safety, enhanced the safety of major accident early warning and forecasting ability. At the same time, the company had set up a staff bailout fund, to hard worker and family for help, realized the support work institutionalized and the standardization. Since the "eleventh five year plan", the company saved difficult staff 13000 people, the salvage valued of 45 million Yuan.
Overlook 2020
BBS moderator Yao Huajun`s summary was in place with lasting appeal.
Yao Huajun said, in China, the concept of harmonious mining area construction was perfecting, exploration was started and had obtained a certain result, a consensus had emerged among special on key issues, that was harmonious mining area construction that should not only deal with the interpersonal relationship, but also want to deal with the relationship between the human and nature or the environment, but the relationship between human and nature or the environment still need to back to human relations.In the construction of harmonious mining area had a very important problem of benefit sharing, the premise was to establish a transparent standardization, mutual trust, communication mechanism. The establishment of the benefit sharing mechanism, needed to present environmental protection and efficient utilization of resources, to the people`s livelihood, including community crowd and mines within the worker. Whether enterprise to perform the social responsibility, it should be done through release social responsibility report system, let the social supervise, let the media supervise.
Yao Huajun considered, the competent department of land and resources, or the competent undertook current efforts to build a harmonious mining area system design, and the government functional departments, needed to protect resources, scientific development of land, with mine on the basis, needed to pay more attention to the maintenance of land and mineral involves the rights protection. In fact, the Ministry of Land and Resources put forward "protect development, protect resources, protect rights", very closed with the promotion of the construction of harmonious mining area.
When it comes to promoting the construction of harmonious mining area of land and resources of specific ideas and steps, Wang Kun had said it in a speech: first is the overall goal to build a harmonious mining area construction four mechanism, to achieve both harmony and achieve a goal. Namely through the establishment of promoting resource conservation and intensive regulation mechanism, compensation mechanism, the resources development and utilization, the distribution of the benefit sharing mechanism, contradiction dispute resolve coordination mechanism, resources development and the harmony of man and natural, interpersonal harmony, to achieve "mining, for the benefit of one party, the development, protection and harmonious mining area, scientific development" of the overall goal. Second is according to the government, industry promotion, enterprise guidance, the pattern of social participation, actively carried out mining area construction. On the basis of the green mine construction, selection of pilot units, established the industry benchmark, gave play to typical demonstration effect. Third is a positive propaganda guidance, passed good voice of harmonious mining area. To find the most beautiful green mining activities, harmonious mining area of experience through the media propaganda, BBS held a harmonious mining area construction, provided communication platform for the industry. Forth is to create a good policy environment, the system overall designed for the construction of a harmonious mining area, the issued policy documents, established incentive mechanism, gave the pilot areas and policy support, used of market mechanisms to promote the harmonious mining area construction, the formation of coordination to promote good situation.
In the interactive link of BBS, Wang Kun was in response to China`s mining news reporter about the guidance for the construction of harmonious mining area and the evaluation index system of timetable problem, said the two files have several drafts before, in the last month of a circular economy in luoyang symposium and solicit the opinions of various industries, various enterprises. "I expect it will be issued as soon as possible, even if is not a very perfect, I also want to have a basic on a trial basis, to guide our businesses and industries in their respective fields to promote the construction of harmonious mining area." This was a practical and pertinent answer.
The reporter understanded, according to the ministry of land and resources and mineral resources development management idea, by the end of "twelfth five-year", China would set up 100 advanced typical harmonious mining area; by 2020, basically set up key to mine mine corporate social responsibility report system and the mining area contradiction resolving mechanism, mineral development benefit distribution mechanism to further improve, the mining area`s economic and social relationships, the ecological environment good, the mining area cultural prosperity. The next step is the construction of the harmonious mining area in a clear goals; To establish the mining area and community people benefit sharing mechanism, and the contradiction between mining area and the community resolving mechanism, etc; Through the government guidance, industry plays, acting in an opera in the enterprise, realized the goal of the masses benefit from mining area, satisfy the public and the government enterprises, mining area.
We might as well look forward, and send our best wishes. Because, it was not only related to the scientific development of mining industry for the construction of harmonious mining area, but also about to change the way of mining development, about the sustainable development of mining area and the mining area of stability, peace and happiness of mine masses.（Zhao Laping）(translated by TLRHVC)
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