Rare earth mining damages the environment
Source: Xinhua |
April 28, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A GREEN future made possible through the use of rare earth metals seems a world away from Zhang Yang'e, whose neighborhood well has become unusable as a result of local rare earth mining operations.
An unpleasant odor wafts from a well in Zhang's backyard, with the well's brownish-yellow water standing beneath a tangle of spiderwebs.
"The water used to taste sweet and our neighbors all loved it. But now it has been become undrinkable," said the 73-year-old farmer, a resident of Dingnan County in east China's Jiangxi Province.
"Even my vegetables withered after I watered them with well water," she said, referring to the rows of green onions, chives and peas she planted in her backyard.
Zhang has blamed a rare earth mine located just 10 meters from her home for the poor quality of her well water. A green hill where the mine was built has been scraped and turned into a cratered landscape not unlike that of the moon, with piles of rock tailings nearly as high as Zhang's two-story house.
Trees on the hill have been toppled and topsoil has been removed. Chemicals have been pumped into holes drilled in the ground to help recover the rare earth metals located there, Zhang said.
China supplies more than 90 percent of the world's rare earth metals, but its reserves only account for about one-third of the world's total. Faced with widespread environmental challenges, the country has launched nationwide campaigns in recent years to clean up its mines.
However, these policies, including production caps, export quota cuts and stricter emissions standards, have sparked concerns among foreign consumers.
On March 13, the United States, European Union and Japan teamed up to bring a joint case against China to the World Trade Organization over alleged export controls on rare earth metals, which they claim are hurting their own domestic manufacturers.
Poisoned soil
In Dingnan, Longnan and other counties in the city of Ganzhou, red clay on the hillsides contains a high concentration of heavy rare earth metals that can be easily absorbed through the clay. Local farmers have mastered the art of using high-potency fertilizer to dissolve the clay and obtain the valuable minerals inside.
Although the Ganzhou government has ordered a shutdown of all rare earth mines since October as an effort to regulate the sector, it is not hard for smaller producers to elude the government's reach.
Waste water from mining operations cannot be used for irrigation, even after being processed according to national emission standards.
It would be hard to imagine what might happen to people who live downstream from the mines, as many of them rely on rivers and streams for irrigation.
While eliminating new sources of pollution is challenging, cleaning up pollution from older sources is even more difficult. Rare earth mining began in Ganzhou in the 1970s, leaving much of the land scarred by barren tailing ponds and eroded hilltops.
According to Su Bo, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, repairing the environmental damage in Ganzhou will cost a total of 38 billion yuan (US$6 billion).
By contrast, the province's rare earth industry only reaped 6.4 billion yuan in profits in 2011.
An unpleasant odor wafts from a well in Zhang's backyard, with the well's brownish-yellow water standing beneath a tangle of spiderwebs.
"The water used to taste sweet and our neighbors all loved it. But now it has been become undrinkable," said the 73-year-old farmer, a resident of Dingnan County in east China's Jiangxi Province.
"Even my vegetables withered after I watered them with well water," she said, referring to the rows of green onions, chives and peas she planted in her backyard.
Zhang has blamed a rare earth mine located just 10 meters from her home for the poor quality of her well water. A green hill where the mine was built has been scraped and turned into a cratered landscape not unlike that of the moon, with piles of rock tailings nearly as high as Zhang's two-story house.
Trees on the hill have been toppled and topsoil has been removed. Chemicals have been pumped into holes drilled in the ground to help recover the rare earth metals located there, Zhang said.
China supplies more than 90 percent of the world's rare earth metals, but its reserves only account for about one-third of the world's total. Faced with widespread environmental challenges, the country has launched nationwide campaigns in recent years to clean up its mines.
However, these policies, including production caps, export quota cuts and stricter emissions standards, have sparked concerns among foreign consumers.
On March 13, the United States, European Union and Japan teamed up to bring a joint case against China to the World Trade Organization over alleged export controls on rare earth metals, which they claim are hurting their own domestic manufacturers.
Poisoned soil
In Dingnan, Longnan and other counties in the city of Ganzhou, red clay on the hillsides contains a high concentration of heavy rare earth metals that can be easily absorbed through the clay. Local farmers have mastered the art of using high-potency fertilizer to dissolve the clay and obtain the valuable minerals inside.
Although the Ganzhou government has ordered a shutdown of all rare earth mines since October as an effort to regulate the sector, it is not hard for smaller producers to elude the government's reach.
Waste water from mining operations cannot be used for irrigation, even after being processed according to national emission standards.
It would be hard to imagine what might happen to people who live downstream from the mines, as many of them rely on rivers and streams for irrigation.
While eliminating new sources of pollution is challenging, cleaning up pollution from older sources is even more difficult. Rare earth mining began in Ganzhou in the 1970s, leaving much of the land scarred by barren tailing ponds and eroded hilltops.
According to Su Bo, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, repairing the environmental damage in Ganzhou will cost a total of 38 billion yuan (US$6 billion).
By contrast, the province's rare earth industry only reaped 6.4 billion yuan in profits in 2011.
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