Restoration of Open-pit Mining Ecosystem in Cold Steppe Included in the List of Advanced and Applicable Technologies

On August 22, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources released the 2022 list of Advanced and Applicable Technologies for the Conservation and Utilization of Mineral Resources. The “key technology for systematic restoration of open-pit mining ecosystem in cold steppe” submitted by the National Institute of Clean-and-low-carbon Energy (NICE), a subsidiary of China Energy, was named.

Dump area at Baorixile open-pit coal mine of Yanbao Energy after ecological restoration

The technology solves such ecological problems caused by high-intensity coal mining as groundwater level drop, land destruction, soil desertification, vegetation degradation, and landscape damage in cold steppe zones. It has been applied and demonstrated in open-pit coal mines operated by Yanbao Energy and Shengli Energy, helping to increase vegetation coverage by 35% in the mining areas. The technology has a broad application prospect and can be widely used in large open-pit mining areas in the eastern steppe zones. The research results of the project won the first prize for scientific and technological progress awarded by China Coal Industry Association in 2021.

The “key technology for systematic restoration of open-pit mining ecosystem in cold steppe” is NICE’s second project to won the honor following its “distributed underground reservoir technology,” which was included in the 2019 catalogue of advanced and applicable technologies released by the Ministry of Natural Resources.