Mining activities and high-carbon processes in China's mineral industry emit a large amount of greenhouse gases. On the one hand, mineral mining activities have caused strong disturbances to the soil and vegetation in the mining area, and the soil destruction and vegetation removal have caused the mining ecosystem to lose its carbon sequestration capacity. On the other hand, a large amount of greenhouse gases will be emitted in the process of ore stripping, mining, separation (washing), pelletizing, steelmaking, transportation, and waste rock and tailings disposal, including the energy consumption of machinery and equipment in the process and the carbon emissions caused by gas and other gas spills in the mining process. The steel industry has the largest carbon emissions in the manufacturing sector, up to 1.8 billion t a, and the non-ferrous metal industry has carbon emissions of 6600 million t a, accounting for 15% and 5% of China's total carbon emissions, respectively.
As an important responsible body for the implementation of China's carbon emission reduction, the mining industry urgently needs to adjust the energy structure and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of green development. The traditional mine ecological environment restoration is based on the damage caused by mining activities to the structure and function of the mine ecosystem, and corresponding measures are taken to carry out terminal treatment, mainly focusing on soil remediation and vegetation restoration. The restoration of the traditional mine ecological environment is not only an important means to reshape the mine ecosystem, but also an effective measure to help the mining area improve carbon sinks.
At present, the carbon emission reduction path of China's mining enterprises is mainly focused on low-carbon technological transformation, process optimization and energy-saving technological transformation, but in the face of huge capacity demand, the total carbon emissions of the mining industry are still high, which puts forward new requirements for the restoration of the mine ecological environment.