The brine canal divides the land, the waste slag and spoil are piled up at will, the leakage of the abandoned salt pan is obvious, and the problems of over-scale production, over-mining and illegal mining of water resources, and encroachment on grassland ...... frequently
The reporter recently accompanied the fifth ecological and environmental protection inspection team in Qinghai Province, the key area of the salt lake industry, the Qaidam Basin inspector known for its "potassium-rich world", found that there are illegal mining, illegal water intake, illegal land occupation and other situations in the local area, which not only brings ecological problems and hidden dangers, but also makes the follow-up guarantee situation of potassium salt increasingly severe.
Large-scale production, private digging and random mining
The Qaidam Basin is located in the northwest of Qinghai Province, mainly in Haixi Prefecture, with 33 salt lakes and rich potash resources, which is an important guarantee area for potash fertilizer in China.
The reporter learned that some local enterprises did not plan the timing, scale and variety of salt lake resource development, and failed to deal with the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection.
Taking the Zarkhan Salt Lake in Golmud City, Haixi Prefecture as an example, potassium chloride production enterprises in this region have been producing potassium chloride for a long time. The total amount of mining licence approvals is 3.97 million tonnes per year, but the actual annual production from 2019 to 2022 exceeded the mining permits. 1%。Among them, Qinghai Salt Lake Industrial Co., Ltd. has an actual production capacity of 5 million tons, which is 38 times, its subordinate ternary potash fertilizer company outside the scope of the mining area illegal construction 1280,000 acres of salt ponds.
The inspector found that Qinghai Development Investment Alkali Industry Company and Zhongyan Qinghai Kunlun Alkali Industry Company did not strictly implement the requirements of 50% production restriction in the rectification and rectification of Delingha City, and also used false production capacity accounts to cope with on-site inspections.
There are also cases of illegal excavation and indiscriminate mining in the Qaidam Basin. For example, five enterprises and two self-employed households in Golmud City privately dug 18 salt pans, covering an area of 525 acres, and most of them did not go through the formalities of mining permits and land use. The reporter saw at the scene that the waste slag and spoil were piled up at will, and the brine ditch was fragmented.
Five small enterprises and two self-employed households in Golmud City dug 18 salt pans privately, piled up waste slag and soil at will, and the brine ditches were fragmented. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Zhanyi.
Illegal water intake and encroachment on grassland
The Qaidam Basin is an extremely arid region, with an average annual precipitation of only 83 mm. Water resources are the lifeblood of the development of the salt lake industry, but the reporter learned with the group of inspectors that some local enterprises have not reasonably allocated water resources in the salt lake area in accordance with the principle of "depending on the water and measuring the water".
The reporter saw on the shore of South Hobson Lake in Golmud City that there was a gap of more than 100 meters in the lake embankment. The Golmud Zangge Potash Company on the shore took advantage of this gap to privately use the brine of South Hobson Lake for ore dissolving. From September 2019 to September 2023, a total of 12.6 billion cubic meters.
Coincidentally, from 2004 to 2020, the Resources Branch of Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd. in Golmud City privately built 16 surface water pumping stations to pump water from the tail of the Golmud River. In the past two years, the annual water withdrawal has reached 21 million cubic meters, and no water withdrawal procedures have been completed so far.
In the vicinity of the Mahai Wetland in Haixi Prefecture, the Mahai Mining Area of Qinghai Jintai Potash Fertilizer Company and Qinghai AVIC Resources Company have been illegally taking water from the Mahai Wetland for a long time by blocking dams and digging canals, and the annual water intake has reached more than 700,000 cubic meters in the past two years.
In addition, there are some companies that are over-scaled or illegally exploiting groundwater. In 2022, Lanke Lithium Company and Potash Fertilizer Branch of Qinghai Salt Lake Industrial Co., Ltd., located in Golmud City, overtook 1.34 million cubic meters and 4.02 million cubic meters of groundwater, respectively. Qinghai Yellow River Industrial Group Jian'an Company privately drilled wells to pump groundwater in the desert area of Dulan County, Haixi Prefecture, and as of September 2023, it illegally took 270,000 cubic meters of water.
Golmud Salinization (Group) Company commissioned Qinghai Yellow River Industrial Group Jian'an Company to operate the potassium chloride project, which privately drilled wells in the desert area of Dulan County to extract groundwater. (Photo courtesy of the inspection team).
The reporter learned with the group of inspectors that Qinghai Development Investment Alkali Industry Company and China Salt Qinghai Kunlun Alkali Industry Company illegally occupied an area of about 250,000 acres, including 4,086 acres of natural pasture. Since 2019, there has been significant leakage in the dam on the west side of the ammonia distillation waste liquid discharge site of Zhongyan Qinghai Kunlun Alkali Industry, posing a threat to the adjacent Qaidam Suosuolin National Nature Reserve.
This situation is not unique: Qinghai AVIC Resources Company illegally occupies 1More than 70,000 acres of grassland to build salt pans;Qinghai Salt Lake Magnesium Co., Ltd. illegally occupies an area of 330,000 acres;Qinghai Wucai Alkali Industry Co., Ltd. illegally occupied 9,599 acres of bare land in the ammonia waste liquid discharge site;Qinghai Jingxin Potash Fertilizer Company illegally occupies an area of 150,000 acres ......
Breaking the mentality of "where there is a salt lake, it can be developed" Supervision needs to form a joint force
Why is this problem occurring?Why are some questions delayed for so long?
The main responsibility of some enterprises for environmental protection is not in place. During the visit, the reporter felt that some local enterprises still have the mentality of "there is a salt lake can be developed", and there are many problems in daily production.
Individual local departments turn a blind eye to the problem and pass the buck to each other. The inspection team believes that the relevant departments of salt lake management, natural resources, water conservancy, forestry and grassland in Haixi Prefecture do not pay enough attention to the high-level development and utilization of salt lake resources and do not supervise them effectively.
Supervision has not yet formed a joint force, and the mechanism still needs to be improved. A number of department heads and enterprise leaders admitted that there are still departmental barriers in the planning and management of the local salt lake industry, such as when it comes to planning output, different departments sometimes have different goals.
Salt lake is the most important resource in Qinghai, and doing a good job in developing and utilizing it under the premise of protecting the ecological environment is the development direction of Qinghai's salt lake industry, and it is also an important issue that cannot be avoided.
In response to the above-mentioned chaos, some local interviewed cadres said that the top priority is to investigate the outstanding ecological and environmental problems in the field of salt lake resource development, avoid inefficient and short-term development paths, and sustainably develop the precious mineral resources of Qaidam Salt Lake. "In the future, we should gradually improve the unified planning and supervision system of the salt lake industry, effectively control the total amount of mineral resources exploitation, and continuously optimize the development and utilization structure. A cadre said.
In addition, some business people suggested that we can strengthen the efficient utilization of potash, deep brine mining, and improve the production process of lithium extraction from brine in salt lakes with high magnesium-to-lithium ratio, so as to continuously improve the ability to drive innovation and build a modern industrial system.
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Xu Han and Li Zhanyi).
*: Xinhuanet).