Air and Waste
Air and Waste
Air and Waste

There may be some toxicants and wastes in the process of ore mining, dressing and smelting and processing, such as waste water, waste gas, tailings, waste rocks and hazardous wastes. We are committed to continuously improving our practices to minimize waste generation, increase material recovery and reuse, and prevent pollution through proper disposal to minimize the potential impact of tailings on the environment.

Our Goals
  • By 2030, reduce SO₂ and NOx emissions intensity by at least 5% compared to 2020
    By 2030, reduce SO₂ and NOx emissions intensity by at least 5% compared to 2020
    By 2030, reduce SO₂ and NOx emissions intensity by at least 5% compared to 2020
  • By 2030, increase comprehensive utilisation rate of non-hazardous waste by 5% compared to 2020
    By 2030, increase comprehensive utilisation rate of non-hazardous waste by 5% compared to 2020
    By 2030, increase comprehensive utilisation rate of non-hazardous waste by 5% compared to 2020
Our Performance in 2021
  • SO₂  emissions intensity reduced by 15.95% year-on-year
    15.95%
    SO₂ emissions intensity reduced by 15.95% year-on-year
  • NOx emissions intensity reduced by 11.96% year-on-year
    11.96%
    NOx emissions intensity reduced by 11.96% year-on-year
  • Non-hazardous waste intensity 28.45 tonne/RMB 10,000, down 12% year-on-year; Comprehensive utilisation rate of non-hazardous waste 13.62%
    13.62%
    Non-hazardous waste intensity 28.45 tonne/RMB 10,000, down 12% year-on-year; Comprehensive utilisation rate of non-hazardous waste 13.62%
Governance & Policy

We strictly abide by the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Standard for pollution control on the non-hazardous industrial solid waste storage and landfill (GB18599-2020), Standard for pollution control on hazardous waste storage (GB18597-2001), Integrated Emission Standard of Air Pollutants (GB16297- 1996) and the relevant environmental protection laws and regulations of China and other places where our projects are located. We encourage various production and operating sites to carry out technological innovation and process improvement, to effectively reduce the generation of waste and take actions of “volume reduction at the source, control in the middle, and management, recycling, and reuse at the end”.

Non-hazardous Waste
For non-hazardous waste, our principle is "turning waste into resources and utilisation", to increase the added value of comprehensive waste utilisation and reducing waste generation:
  • Tailings reuse safety: we carry out tailings reuse, sand discharge and drainage strictly in accordance with the approved design plan to ensure the safety of TSFs and flood design. We carry out inspection and facility maintenance in accordance with the TSF safety management requirements. If tailing is not discharged after reuse, the cancellation formalities of TSFs should be fulfilled in time. After tailings reuse, the TSFs should be closed in accordance with the TSF closure requirements.
  • Tailings and waste rocks: we give priority to underground refilling, use as building materials, vegetation restoration, road paving, recovery of valuable components, and other means for their comprehensive utilisation. The rest is stored in dumps or tailings storage facilities that meet the national standards of the project locations. Seepage prevention in tailings storage facilities is carried out in accordance with the local standards to ensure the safety of groundwater quality in the downstream of the tailings storage facilities.
  • Tailings generated from smelting: we give priority to the recovery of their valuable components. For example, the smelting slag is re-ground and re-processed, with the recovered slag concentrate returned to the smelting system as raw materials for production, and the processed tailings are sold externally as cement additives. The anode slime materials, which are the final waste from copper smelting are effectively treated in the terminal material comprehensive recovery system for the recovery of rare and precious metal elements, including gold, silver, selenium, tellurium, platinum, palladium, rhenium and so on.
  • Slag generated in the water treatment process: they will be sold externally as a cement additive or used as a neutraliser for acidic slopes reclaimed, to improve its utilisation value.
Hazardous Waste
We carry out comprehensive utilisation and optimise the original production process or treatment process to reduce the generation of hazardous waste from the source. We mainly take the following measures:
    • Standardised management in the transportation, storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials to reduce the generation of hazardous waste.
    • All operating projects have their own independent closed hazardous waste storage warehouses that are windproof, rainproof, sunproof and with warning signs, and there are collection channels on the ground for leaking liquids and wastewater from ground washing.
    • In addition to enhancing comprehensive utilisation of waste, we turn waste into resources and render the waste harmless. For example, through the recovery and utilisation of valuable components such as rare and scattered metals and rare and precious metals in non-ferrous metal smelting slag, we carry out scaled utilisation of the residual waste resulting from the extraction of valuable metals to reduce the original harmfulness of hazardous waste.
    • Hazardous waste that cannot be recycled or disposed of on-site will be recycled and disposed of through a qualified third-party.
Air Emissions

Dust in organised discharge is collected and processed with dust removal equipment. Dust in unorganised discharge is controlled with adding fog cannons, atomising spray devices, sprinklers, wind and dust suppression nets, closed storage, and other measures.


High-concentration sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the smelting flue gas are recovered through the acidic gas production systems to obtain by-products such as sulphuric acid and nitric acid. The combined process technology of dry activated coke desulphurisation and highly effective wet scrubbing and the highly effective hydrogen peroxide desulphurisation are used to recover flue gas to efficiently remove sulphur dioxide and heavy metals.


All of our smelting companies have installed online monitoring equipment to dynamically monitor the concentration of gas pollutants in real time. They also regularly entrust third-party agencies to inspect the air pollutants emitted, and monitor the gas pollutants and surrounding air quality regularly on a quarterly basis.

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