Text · Reporter Pan Wei
State-owned Assets Report Magazine Issue 4, 2024
The best time to come to Lindo is summer. It is located in Heilongjiang, the temperature is cool in summer, and there is a small Xing'an Mountains with wind-blown forests and thousands of waves, and the fresh and abundant oxygen can awaken every lazy cell in the human body. Yichun Luming Mining, a subsidiary of China Railway Resources Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Railway Resources"), is located in the hinterland of Linhai in the Xiaoxing'an Mountains. It takes more than an hour to drive from Yichun city to Luming molybdenum mine. As the only domestic mine among the five non-coal mines managed by China Railway Resources, Luming Mining actively integrates into the "dual carbon" strategy, actively explores green and low-carbon management, strives to pursue a symbiotic and win-win situation between development and ecological protection, and becomes a representative of China Railway Resources' green and low-carbon management.
Yichun Luming Mining, located in the hinterland of the Xiaoxing'an Mountains, "Since the establishment of China Railway Resources, we have always carried out various tasks with the goal of green development, energy conservation and emission reduction, and pollution eradication. Zhang Xuejun, member of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of China Railway Resources, said. As an important platform for China Railway to implement "resource financialization" and "resource exchange project", China Railway Resources includes Luming Mining, Huagang Mining, Mongolia Xinxin Company and other backbone mining enterprises. Among them, Luming Mining is a leading enterprise in the domestic molybdenum industry, and the supply capacity of the molybdenum concentrate market ranks first in China. In recent years, Luming Mining has implemented the development concept of "Two Mountains" and has been selected as an "Advanced Unit" of China Green Supply Chain Alliance and a pilot unit for the standard demonstration and implementation of the "Intelligent Mine Construction Specification" of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Carbon reduction at the source
"Over the years, as companies have promoted green and low-carbon work, I feel that the mining area has become more and more like a garden mining area. Especially in summer, the surrounding vegetation is lush and the scenery is beautiful. Working in such a beautiful ecological environment in the mining area is also more motivated. Yin Shixin, a veteran employee who has worked in Luming Mining for more than 10 years and the deputy director of equipment management of the concentrator, praised the reporter while overhauling the equipment. Top-level design is the key "source" of green and low-carbon management of enterprises. "In 2020, China Railway Resources proposed green mine construction for the first time." Xu Yansheng, director of the safety and quality department of China Railway Resources, told the reporter of the "State-owned Assets Report" that China Railway Resources has established a safety, quality and environmental protection committee with the main person in charge as the chairman, established a leading group for carbon peak and carbon neutrality in 2022, and established a leading group for climate change and energy conservation and emission reduction in February 2024, clarifying the top-level green and low-carbon management system. Zhang Xuejun emphasized: "In our annual No. 1 document, we will set goals and measures for ecological and environmental protection work. "In response to the group's deployment arrangement, we at Luming Mining have started a model transformation with green and high-quality development as the core in 2021. Among the non-coal mining enterprises in the country, we began to respond to the new challenges brought about by the 'dual carbon' era relatively early. Meng Qingyin, general manager of China Railway Resources Luming Mining, said. Upstream mineral mining is an important "source" of green and low-carbon management of the whole industrial chain. As the only mineral resource sector of China Railway, China Railway Resources focuses on the development of non-coal mineral resources and is in the upstream of the industrial chain, and the grade of the mined mineral resources directly affects the energy conservation and carbon reduction of the downstream industrial chain. The person in charge of Luming Mining said that the effectiveness of green carbon reduction management should not only be seen in the enterprise, but also in the whole industrial chain. For example, if the grade of molybdenum concentrate products of Luming Mining reaches more than 50%, it can greatly reduce the energy consumption and simplify the process of reprocessing of downstream enterprises, and actually achieve the effect of energy conservation and carbon reduction in the whole industry chain. Overseas, the Busuanga Hydropower Station, jointly built and operated by China Railway Resources, is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), providing a steady stream of green and clean energy for Huagang Mining, realizing carbon reduction at the source of electricity consumption, and helping Huagang Mining produce "the lowest carbon copper". Luming Mining also starts to reduce carbon emissions from the source of electricity consumption, strictly implements energy consumption quota standards, optimizes the energy structure, and increases the proportion of new energy. In 2023, China Railway Resources Luming Mining will use 20% of new energy electricity, and the comprehensive energy consumption of 10,000 yuan output value will be reduced by 4.9% year-on-year.
Three-end force
Walking in the refinery area of Luming molybdenum mine, the person in charge of China Railway Resources Luming Mining took reporters to watch the crushing, grinding and flotation of molybdenum ore, and introduced that in the "three ends" of the front-end, middle-end and back-end, the process has been optimized, the utilization rate of resources has been improved, and the energy consumption per unit of mineral resource mining has been effectively reduced. At the front end, China Railway Resources runs the low-carbon concept through the early design of equipment and plants, so that green design can go ahead. If you want to do porcelain work, you have to have diamonds. China Railway Resources adheres to the concept of scientific and green mining, and makes every effort to promote its affiliated mining companies to improve the environmental protection facilities of various mining and metallurgical production systems, including the neutralization and slurry mixing system of acid leaching slag in tailings ponds, backwater collection ponds and accident pools.
Aerial view of the tailings pond
Luming Mining in China and Huagang Mining in overseas China Railway Resources all use electrical equipment or components with energy-saving labels to minimize energy consumption. In terms of plant design, Luming Mining is located in the northeast region of the middle temperate zone, the climate is relatively cold, and the plant is designed in accordance with the "four sections and one environmental protection" in the front-end design of the general layout, building materials selection, building structure, logistics path, etc. In the mid-end, optimize the beneficiation technology and process, adjust the energy utilization structure, and open up the green production horsepower. Huagang Mining's oxygen-rich roasting-hydrometallurgical treatment of copper sulfide concentrate technology is at the international leading level. According to reports, this hydrometallurgical process, compared with traditional pyrometallurgical smelting and other processes, not only greatly shortens the smelting process and reduces production costs, but also achieves energy conservation and emission reduction while efficiently recovering copper and cobalt, and avoids environmental pollution caused by sulfur dioxide. In 2022, Xinxin Company invested more than 40 million yuan to build Mongolia's first backfill mining system, which not only realized the safe and sustainable mining of goaf filling, but also reduced the occupation of grassland land by tailings, and took the lead in realizing waste-free green and environmentally friendly mining. This has been recognized by the relevant government departments in Mongolia and has been promoted throughout Mongolia. At the end, strengthen the "three wastes" governance, promote the recycling of resources, and strengthen green governance capabilities. Tailings are the main solid waste produced by molybdenum mining. How to turn a huge amount of tailings into treasure, Luming Mining has made many attempts. The reporter saw in the environmental protection exhibition hall of Luming Mining that the cement powder, ceramic tiles, product packaging and other trial products made of tailings were impressively displayed. "Molybdenum mine tailings are solid waste in themselves, but they are processed into building materials such as cement admixtures and microcrystalline tiles." According to the staff of Luming Mining, once the tailings can be successfully recycled, it will greatly reduce the number of tailings ponds and the area occupied by forest land, reduce the safety risks of tailings ponds, and realize the recycling of solid waste resources. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Huagang Mining has built the first upstream damming tailings pond in the DRC to continuously improve the roasting tail gas treatment system and greatly reduce carbon emissions. Carbon reduction and emission reduction should also be added.
Ecological restoration and afforestation in the living area and near-view mining area are also important contents of the back-end. In China, Luming Mining has successively planted more than 60,000 landscape trees such as pine trees and purple-leaved plum trees around the production and living areas, and completed the greening area of 42,000 square meters in the living area and factory area. Overseas, Xinxin Company has carried out reclamation of 13.3 hectares and 10.8 hectares of ecological reclamation in the surrounding areas for many years, and actively responded to the environmental protection activities of Mongolia's "Plant One Billion Trees" plan, planting more than 10,000 trees in total.
Digital intelligence empowerment
Walking into the command center of Luming Mining, a large screen shows the comings and goings of transport trucks in the open-pit mine, the workers in the refinery area are manipulating the equipment to move the tower crane, and the real-time monitoring screen is transmitted from the dam slope on the tailings dam, and the data of air pollutants such as dust can be seen at a glance. Meng Qingyin, general manager of Luming Mining, said: "We have achieved phased results in digital informatization, and in 2024, we will comprehensively promote the construction of smart mines, and the planned start rate of each project will reach more than 90% within the year." "Digitalization, informatization and intelligence provide opportunities and scientific and technological means for green and low-carbon transformation, and green and low-carbon points out the direction for digital and intelligent transformation. Relying on digital and intelligent transformation, China Railway Resources explores and empowers green and low-carbon management, and promotes the construction of green mines by digital and information means. It is understood that Huagang Mining, Luming Mining, etc., which are key backbone enterprises affiliated to China Railway Resources, have invested in the construction of mine DCS control systems, built a technical management platform and production control platform based on information systems, changed the previous mode of controlling production and operation of mines with a single analysis data, realized centralized command and control management, and effectively improved the level of green development and comprehensive utilization of mineral resources. In the factory control center of Luming Mining, Meng Qingyin told reporters that when the DCS control system was applied, some employees did not dare to touch or use it, for fear of making mistakes and being responsible. When he found out about this problem, he immediately arranged to organize and carry out technical training on DCS hyper-converged system to help technicians improve their mastery and understanding of system theoretical knowledge, hardware architecture, and software applications. Nowadays, the system function setting in the eyes of employees is basically cleared with blind spots, which not only further improves the management and control ability of technicians, but also gives full play to the maximum efficiency of the automatic control system. Relying on the information-based mine system, China Railway Resources has made two-way efforts to increase carbon absorption and reduce carbon emissions, carried out low-carbon technology research, and successively completed hundreds of green production chain technological transformation projects such as "Copper and Cobalt Mine Graded Power Supply Transformation Project" and "Integration and Industrialization of Key Technologies for Tailings Pond Water Recycling".
Zhang Xuejun of China Railway Resources Huagang Mining Smelting Production Line said that the Luming Mine was built earlier and is currently gradually completing automation, informatization and intelligent upgrading, while the Huagang Mining Smelter, which was just built a few years ago, has applied automatic crane and automatic stripping unit. The stripping unit has a high degree of mechanization, efficient stripping operation, greatly reduces the number of workers, effectively prevents and reduces on-site production safety risks, and truly realizes "mechanized substitution, automation and manpower", so as to ensure the process with tooling, quality with technology, and safety with quality. On February 19, 2024, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council held a special meeting on the promotion of artificial intelligence for central enterprises, proposing that central enterprises should take the initiative to embrace the profound changes brought about by artificial intelligence and put the acceleration of the development of a new generation of artificial intelligence in a more prominent position. Meng Qingyin, general manager of Luming Mining, said: "In 2024, Luming Mining will continue to make efforts to anchor the development positioning of 'vanguard of high-quality development, pioneer of digital and intelligent upgrading, and leader of green and low-carbon development'. ”
In Luming Mining, the reporter saw that on the conveyor belt of hundreds of meters in the refinery area, the intelligent inspection robot "Xiaoyan" gradually replaced the manual inspection; On the tailings dam, the inspection robot "Molybdenum Bao No. 1" tirelessly guards the safety of the dam day and night, in the wind and rain; In the detection and analysis room, the intelligent testing equipment automatic sulfur analyzer and hydrocarbon element analyzer have been officially put into use, and the company's coal quality detection has been upgraded from the traditional chemical analysis method to intelligent detection...... Luming Molybdenum Mine has previously completed the construction of a number of intelligent mining systems such as 5G network, mine data center, and digital mining software platform in the mining area, and will become a first-class intelligent mine demonstration enterprise in the industry in the future. Taking advantage of the east wind of digital intelligence, China Railway Resources will accelerate the upgrading of its green mines. Zhang Xuejun said: "We will focus on the 'dual carbon' goal, rely on digital and intelligent technology, comprehensively and synchronously promote the construction of intelligent green mines at home and abroad, and contribute to the Chinese-style modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature." ”
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