Entering Shangjia Village, Wenfeng Township, Xunwu County, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, you can see green everywhere. Standing on the observation deck of the Keshutang abandoned mine management project, green grass covers the hillside in patches, the bicycle track twists and turns, and the solar photovoltaic panels are arranged in an orderly manner. A few years ago, this was still an abandoned mine with severe pollution caused by excessive rare earth mining. Nowadays, abandoned mines are dressed in green, polluted rivers are already clear, and cycling tracks are racing, becoming a good place for people to relax and exercise.

Ganzhou is known as the World Tungsten Capital and the Kingdom of Rare Earth, especially for its large reserves of ionic medium and heavy rare earth. The local mineral resources are widely distributed, and 8 counties and districts within the jurisdiction, including Longnan, Xunwu, Dingnan, Ganxian, and Dayu, are the main production areas of rare earth and tungsten mines. In the early 1970s, the backward and inefficient open mining pool leaching mining process led to water and soil loss and Soil contamination, resulting in a large area of "ravines crisscross, white desert" topography and serious damage to the ecological environment. According to statistics, there were as many as 497 abandoned rare earth mines in Ganzhou, covering an area of 97.34 square kilometers, and the surface soil acidic pollution area reached 60 square kilometers. In the face of this serious pollution problem, Ganzhou City fully revitalized its financial resources and explored a sustainable development path from governance to prosperity of abandoned mines.

Abandoned mines turn into green mountains and clear waters

Before mining rare earths, here were picturesque mountains and clear waters, birds chirping and insects chirping; After the destruction of the ecological environment, there are ruins and Desertification everywhere. Xie Lixin, a villager in Keshutang, Xunwu County, still feels sad when he recalls the face of the abandoned rare earth mine. The serious ecological and environmental problems faced by rare earth mineral areas make the restoration of abandoned mines urgent.

In the face of many abandoned mines that need to be treated urgently, the Ganzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China conducted a comprehensive survey on the demand for funds for the treatment of abandoned mines in all counties of the city, made full use of green financial bond policy tools, encouraged financial institutions to use direct financing to issue green financial bond, and increased financial support for abandoned mine treatment projects at a lower cost. Local financial departments play a role in stimulating and guiding financial funds, adopting methods such as investment subsidies, operation subsidies, and loan interest subsidies to enhance the sustainability of abandoned mine management in the early stages, mitigate project risks, and guide credit funds to invest in abandoned mine restoration projects.

Under policy guidance, financial institutions have actively taken action to increase support for the restoration of abandoned mines and meet the funding needs of various stages of mine restoration. Ganzhou Bank made full use of the green financial bond tool, innovatively launched the "green industry loan" special loan product for the reconstruction of abandoned mines, invested 200 million yuan of credit funds in three abandoned mine restoration projects in Shipai, Keshutang and Hanshui District, Wenfeng Township, Xunwu County, and carried out terrain improvement, slope restoration, sediment drainage, vegetation restoration, and 25200 mu of abandoned mines restoration. Dingnan County introduced biotechnology enterprises to transform the soil of abandoned mines, and with the support of 5 million yuan of credit funds from Dingnan Rural Commercial Bank, the Soil organic matter content of 1500 mu of abandoned mines increased from zero to 7%. Ganzhou Branch of China Construction Bank actively docked with the abandoned mine reconstruction project and issued the first credit fund of 53 million yuan to support the abandoned mine reconstruction project in Ningdu County. Under the guidance of the supporting policies, the financial system of Ganzhou City has continuously irrigated the source of financial living water to the abandoned mines. The abandoned mines that were devastated in the past are now lush and vibrant. Editor/Zhao E