Measures for the prevention and control of environmental pollution by Tailings

(promulgated by order No. 26 of the Ministry of ecology and environment on April 6, 2022 and implemented as of July 1, 2022)

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 These measures are formulated in accordance with the environmental protection law of the people's Republic of China, the law of the people's Republic of China on the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid wastes, the law of the people's Republic of China on the prevention and control of soil pollution and other relevant laws and regulations in order to prevent and control environmental pollution by tailings and protect and improve the ecological environment.

Article 2 These measures are applicable to the prevention and control of environmental pollution by tailings within the territory of the people's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as pollution prevention and control) and its supervision and management.

The pollution prevention and control and supervision and management of uranium (thorium) tailings with a single nuclide activity concentration of more than 1BQ / g and uranium (thorium) mine tailings generated in the development and utilization of associated radioactive mines shall be governed by the provisions of relevant laws and regulations on the prevention and control of radioactive pollution, and these measures are not applicable.

Article 3 the prevention and control of tailings pollution shall adhere to the principle of putting prevention first and taking responsibility for pollution.

The units that produce, store, transport and comprehensively utilize tailings, as well as the units that operate and manage tailings ponds, shall take measures to prevent or reduce the environmental pollution caused by tailings, and bear responsibility for the environmental pollution caused by tailings according to law.

The enterprise group that controls the units that generate tailings and the tailings pond operation and management units shall strengthen the supervision and management of its subordinate enterprises, supervise and guide them to perform the main responsibility of tailings pollution prevention and control.

Article 4 the competent department of ecological environment under the State Council shall supervise and administer the prevention and control of tailings pollution throughout the country.

The local competent departments of ecological environment at all levels shall be responsible for the supervision and administration of the prevention and control of tailings pollution in their respective administrative areas.

The river basin ecological environment supervision and administration institution under the competent department of ecological environment under the State Council shall, in accordance with the functions and responsibilities prescribed by laws and regulations or entrusted by the competent department of ecological environment under the State Council, guide, coordinate and supervise the prevention and control of tailings pollution within its jurisdiction.

Article 5 the prevention and control of tailing pond pollution shall be subject to classified and graded environmental supervision and management.

The competent department of ecological environment under the State Council is responsible for formulating the technical regulations for the classification and classification of environmental supervision and management of tailings ponds. According to the types of minerals to which the tailings belong, the environmental sensitivity around the tailings pond, the environmental protection level of the tailings pond and other factors, the tailings pond is divided into level I, level II and level III environmental supervision and management tailings ponds, and the environmental supervision and management requirements of different levels of tailings pond are specified.

The competent department of ecological environment at the provincial level is responsible for determining the list of classified and graded environmental supervision and management of tailings ponds in its administrative region, and strengthening supervision and management.

The municipal competent department of ecological environment divided into districts shall, according to the list of classified and graded environmental supervision and management of tailings ponds determined by the provincial competent department of ecological environment, carry out classified and graded management of tailings ponds.

Chapter II pollution prevention and control

Article 6 the units producing tailings shall establish and improve the responsibility system for pollution prevention and control in the whole process of tailings production, storage, transportation and comprehensive utilization, determine the departments and full-time technical personnel responsible for pollution prevention and control, and clarify the responsibilities of the responsible persons and relevant personnel of the units.

Article 7 units that generate tailings and units that operate and manage tailings ponds shall establish tailings environmental management accounts.

The unit that generates tailings shall truthfully record the type, quantity, flow direction, storage, comprehensive utilization and other information of tailings generated in production and operation in the tailings environmental management account; The operation and management unit of tailings pond shall truthfully record the construction and operation of pollution prevention and control facilities, environmental monitoring, investigation and treatment of potential pollution hazards, emergency response plan for environmental emergencies and its implementation in the environmental management account of tailings pond.

The retention period of the environmental management account of tailings shall not be less than five years, and the environmental management account information of the tailings pond operation and management unit shall be kept all the time.

The units that generate tailings and the units that operate and manage tailings ponds shall fill in the relevant information generated in the previous year through the national information platform for the prevention and control of solid waste pollution before January 31 of each year.

Article 8 Where a unit producing tailings entrusts others to store, transport and comprehensively utilize tailings, or a tailings pond operation and management unit entrusts others to transport and comprehensively utilize tailings, it shall verify the subject qualification and technical capacity of the entrusted party, sign a written contract according to law, and specify the requirements for pollution prevention and control in the contract.

Article 9 Where a tailings pond is newly built, rebuilt or expanded, an environmental impact assessment shall be carried out according to law, and the provisions of the State Council on environmental protection management of construction projects shall be observed, and measures for prevention and control of tailings pollution shall be implemented.

The site selection of tailings pond shall meet the requirements of relevant laws, regulations and mandatory standards for ecological environment protection. It is prohibited to build tailings ponds and other places for storing tailings in the ecological protection red line area, the basic farmland concentration area, the river and Lake flood discharge area and other areas requiring special protection.

Article 10 Where a tailings pond is newly built, rebuilt or expanded, pollution prevention and control facilities such as anti-seepage, leachate collection, wastewater treatment, environmental monitoring and environmental emergency shall be constructed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council and the actual situation of the tailings pond.

Article 11 the design and construction of anti-seepage facilities of tailings ponds shall fully consider the geological and hydrological conditions and meet the requirements for the management of the corresponding tailings attribute categories.

The anti-seepage requirements of the leachate collection pool, return pool, environmental emergency pool and other facilities supporting the tailings pond shall not be lower than the anti-seepage requirements of the tailings pond, and anti overflow facilities shall be set.

Article 12 the tailing pipelines and backwater pipelines of newly built tailings ponds shall avoid crossing farmland, rivers and lakes; If it is really necessary to cross, pipe ditches, casings and other facilities shall be built to prevent environmental pollution caused by leakage.

Article 13 Where a conveyor belt is used to transport tailings, measures such as sealing shall be taken to prevent tailings from losing and scattering.

Where tailings are transported by vehicles, measures such as covering shall be taken to prevent the tailings from being scattered and scattered.

Article 14 a unit that produces tailings under the management of pollutant discharge license according to law shall apply for a pollutant discharge license or fill in a pollutant discharge registration form, discharge tailings and pollutants in accordance with the provisions of the management of pollutant discharge license, and implement the relevant environmental management requirements.

Article 15 the operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall take measures to prevent scattering, loss, leakage or other environmental pollution, strengthen the management and maintenance of the pollution prevention and control facilities of the tailings pond, ensure the normal operation and use of the tailings pond, and prevent the tailings from polluting the environment.

Article 16 the operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall take measures such as dust suppression on the surface of the pond and greening of the slope to prevent dust pollution and beautify the environment.

Article 17 tailings water shall be preferentially returned to the beneficiation process for use; The pollutants discharged to the environment shall comply with the * and local pollutant discharge standards, and shall not be mixed with the rainwater outside the tailings pond. Pollutant discharge outlets shall be set up in accordance with relevant regulations, signs shall be set up, and flow meters and video monitoring shall be installed according to law.

The storage period of flowmeter monitoring records at pollutant discharge outlets shall not be less than five years, and the storage period of video monitoring records shall not be less than three months.

Article 18 the operation and management unit of tailings pond shall construct groundwater quality monitoring wells in accordance with the relevant standards and specifications.

Groundwater quality monitoring wells shall be set up in the upstream and downstream of the tailings pond and the surrounding areas where pollution diffusion may occur.

Article 19 the tailings pond operation and management unit shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state, carry out groundwater environmental monitoring and soil pollution monitoring and assessment.

Where tailings water is discharged, the operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall carry out water pollutant discharge monitoring at least once a month during the discharge period; Where toxic and harmful water pollutants are discharged, the receiving water body and other surrounding environment shall also be monitored at least once every quarter.

The operation and management unit of tailings pond shall publicize the monitoring results of pollutant discharge and other relevant information according to law.

Twenty tailing pond operation and management units shall establish and improve the tailing pond pollution potential investigation and treatment system, and organize the investigation and treatment of tailing pond pollution potential; If a potential pollution hazard is found, it shall formulate a rectification plan and take timely measures to eliminate the potential.

The operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall carry out the investigation of potential pollution hazards at least once before the flood season every year.

Article 21 if the operation and management unit of tailings pond finds that there are pollution signs such as pollutant leakage or high content increase in the soil and groundwater around the tailings pond during environmental monitoring and other activities, it shall promptly find out the reasons, take measures to prevent the leakage of pollutants in a timely manner, carry out environmental investigation and risk assessment according to the relevant provisions of the * and take measures such as risk control or treatment and repair according to the investigation and risk assessment results.

If the competent department of ecological environment finds in the supervision and inspection that the soil and groundwater around the tailings pond have pollution signs such as leakage of pollutants or high content, it shall timely urge the operation and management unit of the tailings pond to take corresponding measures.

Article 22 the operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the competent department of ecological environment under the State Council, carry out the risk assessment of environmental emergencies in the tailings pond, prepare, revise and file the emergency plan for environmental emergencies in the tailings pond, build and maintain environmental risk prevention and emergency facilities, reserve environmental emergency materials, and regularly organize and carry out emergency drills for environmental emergencies in the tailings pond.

Article 23 in the event of an environmental emergency, the operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall immediately start the emergency plan for the environmental emergency of the tailings pond, take emergency measures to eliminate or mitigate the impact of the accident, timely notify the units and residents that may be endangered, and report to the county-level ecological and environmental administrative department of the administrative region.

The competent department of ecological environment at or above the county level shall do a good job in emergency disposal, environmental impact and loss investigation and assessment in accordance with the relevant provisions after discovering or learning the information of environmental emergencies in tailings pond.

Article 24 the operation and management unit of the tailings pond shall take measures during and after the closure of the tailings pond to ensure that the leachate collection facilities and the tailings water discharge monitoring facilities continue to operate normally, and regularly carry out water pollutant discharge monitoring to ensure that the pollutant discharge meets the * and local discharge standards.

The leachate collection facilities and tailing water discharge monitoring facilities of the tailing pond shall operate normally until there is no leachate generated within two consecutive years after the closure of the tailing pond, or the leachate generated can be stably discharged up to standard without treatment.

After the tailings pond is closed, the operation and management unit shall take measures to ensure that the groundwater quality monitoring wells continue to operate normally, and continue to monitor the groundwater quality in accordance with the relevant provisions of the * until the groundwater quality in the downstream does not exceed the groundwater quality in the upstream or the groundwater quality in the region for two consecutive years.

Twenty fifth units that carry out tailings filling, backfilling, extracting valuable components from tailings and producing building materials and other comprehensive utilization of tailings shall take corresponding measures in accordance with the relevant provisions of the * to prevent secondary environmental pollution.

Chapter III Supervision and management

Article 26 The competent department of ecological environment of China shall strengthen the informatization construction of tailings pollution prevention and control, and strengthen the docking and data sharing of environmental management information systems.

Article 27 the provincial competent department of ecological environment shall strengthen the supervision and evaluation of the approval procedures and the results of the environmental impact assessment of the construction projects of new, reconstructed and expanded tailings ponds; If it is found that the competent department of ecological environment of the city divided into districts and the county level does not have the ability to examine and approve the environmental impact assessment of the tailings pond construction project, or there are prominent problems in the examination and approval process, it shall adjust the examination and approval authority of the environmental impact assessment according to law.

Article 28 The competent department of ecological environment at the municipal level divided into districts shall include the operation and management units of the first and second level environmental supervision and management tailings ponds in the list of key pollutant discharge units and implement key control.

Twenty ninth to encourage local ecological and environmental authorities at all levels to comprehensively use remote video monitoring, unmanned aerial vehicles, remote sensing, geographic information systems and other means to carry out the supervision and management of tailings pollution prevention and control.

Chapter IV penalties

Article 30 Any unit that produces tailings or the operation and management unit of tailings pond, in violation of the provisions of these measures, commits any of the following acts, shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the law of the people's Republic of China on the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid wastes, the law of the people's Republic of China on the prevention and control of water pollution, the law of the people's Republic of China on the prevention and control of soil pollution and other laws and regulations:

（1） Failing to establish and truthfully record the environmental management account of tailings;

（2） Discharging water pollutants in excess of the discharge standards for water pollutants;

（3） Starting construction without approval of environmental impact assessment documents of construction projects according to law;

（4） Failing to carry out soil and groundwater environmental monitoring as required;

（5） Failing to carry out emergency disposal of environmental emergencies in tailings pond according to law;

（6） Dumping, stacking, discarding or scattering tailings without authorization, or failing to take corresponding preventive measures, resulting in tailings dispersion, loss, leakage or other environmental pollution;

（7） Other acts in violation of laws and regulations.

Article 31 Where a unit that generates tailings or a tailings pond operation and management unit violates the provisions of these measures and fails to fill in the relevant information generated in the previous year through the national information platform for the prevention and control of solid waste pollution on time, the local competent department of ecological environment at or above the municipal level divided into districts shall order it to make corrections and give a warning; Those who refuse to make corrections shall be fined not more than 30000 yuan.

Article 32 Whoever, in violation of the provisions of these measures, discharges tailings water into the environment and fails to set up pollutant discharge outlet signs in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council shall be ordered to make corrections and given a warning by the local competent department of ecological environment at or above the municipal level divided into districts; Those who refuse to make corrections shall be fined not more than 50000 yuan.

Article 33 Where the operation and management unit of tailings pond violates the provisions of these measures and fails to organize the investigation and treatment of potential pollution hazards as required, the competent department of ecological environment at or above the municipal level divided into districts shall order it to make corrections and give a warning; Those who refuse to make corrections shall be fined not more than 100000 yuan.

Chapter V supplementary provisions

Article 34 the meanings of the following terms in these measures:

（1） Tailings refer to the solid wastes generated from the ores mined from metal and non-metal mines and the valuable concentrates selected by the ore dressing plant.

（2） Tailings pond refers to the place where tailings are stored.

（3） Closure refers to the measures taken to close the tailings pond after the tailings pond is out of use, also known as closure.

（4） The operation and management units of the tailings pond include the enterprises of the tailings pond and the management and maintenance units of the tailings pond designated by the local people's government.

Article 35 these Measures shall come into force as of July 1, 2022. The administrative provisions on the prevention and control of environmental pollution by tailings (Order No. 11 of the China Environmental Protection Bureau) shall be repealed at the same time.