450 yuan per hectare to monopolize mining rights and underground mining is beyond regulation? Environmental groups urge prompt amendment of the Mining Act
A loophole in the Mining Act? To highlight the flaws in the current regulations, environmental groups today cited the example of Liying Mining, which sought to convert what was originally open-pit mining into underground room-and-pillar mining, pointing out that current regulations only govern the area of the mine pit entrance while ignoring the tunnels and the overall underground mining situation, causing the mining land area to be severely underestimated. The actual mining area and the applied-for area may differ by as much as several dozen times, and operators can also evade environmental impact assessments this way. Environmental groups therefore called on the government to thoroughly revise mining regulations and systems so that mining can develop.
Operators Exploit Mining Act Loophole: Big Gap Between Applied Area and Actual Mining Area
The Citizens of the Earth Foundation held a press conference today together with legislator Kao Lu Yi-yung. Regarding the example of Liying Mining, foundation specialist Pan Cheng-cheng pointed out that Liying Mining, located in Hualien County, obtained its mining rights in 1971. However, after many years of mining, the operator stated in 2012 that the originally approved open-pit ore source had been exhausted, so it switched to the "room-and-pillar" underground mining method, drilling downward all the way, and only in 2015 submitted a "comparison table of changes" to the Environmental Protection Administration. This move immediately aroused environmental concern, and the inspection brigade also required the operator to stop work and re-conduct an environmental impact assessment.
Regarding the Liying example, Pan Cheng-cheng pointed out that this highlighted how the Ministry of Economic Affairs, in pursuit of profit, allowed operators to exploit a loophole in the "Mining Act," because when the mining land area exceeds a certain threshold (2 hectares on hillside land, 5 hectares in general areas), only the "mining pit entrance" is required to undergo mining land approval, while actual underground mining does not, which is absurd. This causes the mining land area to be severely underestimated and allows operators to avoid environmental impact assessment; the actual mining area and the applied-for area may differ by as much as several dozen times.
Therefore, she called on the government to quickly amend the definition in Article 4, Subparagraph 13 of the Mining Act, which states that mining land means the "surface" approved for actual mining use, changing "surface" to "land," so that operators can no longer exploit this textual loophole to evade environmental impact review. If the regulation cannot be amended, the Environmental Protection Administration should also revise the relevant administrative directives and standards.
