Energy conservation and emission reduction constitute an indispensable component of the "Green Ecology, Digital Smart Mine" project at Wulong Mining. To actively support China’s "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" strategic goals proposed at the United Nations General Assembly, we have formulated a tailored set of energy conservation and emission reduction plans based on on-site conditions, with the core objectives of further lifting energy efficiency and building a recycled green energy system.

In terms of production energy consumption, an investment of RMB 27 million has been allocated for substation renovation and new power line construction. This will not only accommodate expanded production capacity, but also reduce transmission losses through new equipment and upgraded power lines. It improves the stability and quality of power supply, and delivers stronger safeguards for the safe operation of production systems. Furthermore, an investment of RMB 24 million will be made to upgrade the underground power supply system. Upon completion, the stability and safety of underground power supply will be enhanced.

To develop an eco-friendly, park-style mining area, a comprehensive ecological restoration and land reclamation plan has been formulated in light of the local ecological conditions. More than RMB 30 million has been invested in geological environment rehabilitation. In recent years, approximately 70,000 cubic metres of backfill and 60,000 cubic metres of topsoil have been placed within the mine site. Over 500 mu of woodland has been restored with more than 40,000 trees planted. In 2021, a special campaign was launched to build a park-style mine. A total of 15 kilometres of roads around the mine were renovated, 200 solar street lights installed, and nearly 10,000 ornamental flowers and trees planted. Landmark features, corridors, railings and planting areas were constructed. Upon completion, the project was visited and highly recognised by local government authorities, and widely promoted as a benchmark for mine beautification in the region. Tailings pond remediation has also been carried out. A total effective storage volume of 1.4221 million cubic metres has been backfilled, with the remaining 610,000 cubic metres of backfill ongoing. Covering a total area of 120 mu, 35 mu has been rehabilitated, with cumulative investment of RMB 40.83 million over four years.

Environmental risk prevention and emergency management have been strengthened; forecasting and early warning systems have been established and improved, and comprehensive emergency response plans for environmental incidents have been prepared in accordance with regulatory requirements. In November 2020, the mine obtained the acceptance certificate for geological environment rehabilitation and was included on the Liaoning Provincial Green Mine List.

The development of the "Digital Smart Mine" represents not only the application of more advanced modern technologies, but also the development direction for mining enterprises in the future. The "digital transformation" of production systems at Wulong Mining covers two segments: underground production systems and mineral processing systems. For the underground systems, in addition to upgrading the completed six major systems including underground monitoring and control, personnel positioning, communication, emergency refuge, compressed air self-rescue and water supply rescue, a strategic agreement has been signed with the local mobile communication operator for the construction of an underground "5G+" cloud-based internet data processing system. The project plans to deploy 5G technology in industrial internet scenarios such as unmanned driving, unattended operation, intelligent scheduling, expert control, digital management and intelligent decision-making, and relevant work is currently underway.

The sub-project of constructing a mineral processing plant with a daily processing capacity of 3,000 tonnes has been listed as a key project under the "Three Major Articles" initiative of Liaoning Province and a key construction project at Dandong municipal level. The project comprises the construction of the mineral processing plant, tailings conveying system, tailings filter press workshop and supporting auxiliary facilities. The equipment configuration of the project ranks among the top five in China and boasts domestically leading automation and intelligence levels. By establishing a three-layer network architecture consisting of the production management layer, process control layer and field equipment layer, the plant realizes online monitoring of process parameters, automatic control, production information management and integrated network data display for processes including crushing and screening, grinding and classification, flotation, reagent preparation, thickening and filtration, and tailings transportation.

Targeted effective and feasible environmental protection facilities are configured for waste gas, wastewater, solid waste, noise and other pollutants generated during the operation of the mineral processing plant. The design incorporates protective and controllable environmental facilities throughout the whole process. Equipment and installations are adopted to isolate waste generated in production from operators and working environments and purify such waste. During project implementation, environmental protection facilities will be designed, constructed and put into operation simultaneously with the main project.

Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted significant socio-economic impacts. Wulong Mining has organised multiple donations of funds and anti-epidemic supplies for COVID-19 prevention and control in the local mining area, contributing approximately RMB 890,000 in cash and epidemic supplies worth RMB 200,000. Beyond that, the mine has provided relief and support to villages surrounding the mining area. It donated RMB 100,000 to the locality and arranged cleaning jobs for impoverished villagers to secure their livelihoods. A donation of RMB 200,000 was provided to Banshi Village adjacent to the mine for the construction of village roads. The company also invested RMB 2.2 million to dredge nearly 8,000 square metres of the artificial riverbed of the nearby Banshi River, substantially mitigating flood risks during rainy seasons and bringing benefits to local villagers and residents in downstream areas.

Guided by the principle of "Safety First, Prevention Foremost", the Company actively adopts advanced processes and equipment to lift the automation level in production, eliminating hazards that threaten safety and human health. Targeting risk factors endangering safe production in engineering works, proactive preventive measures are incorporated into design to effectively avoid accidents and safeguard employee safety. Meanwhile, regular physical examinations, psychological counselling services and safety training sessions are arranged for employees to enhance their safety awareness and self-protection awareness, which effectively protects employees’ physical and mental health.

To reduce work intensity, automatic identification of equipment operating status and data collection are deployed, easing the workload of production personnel and enabling monitoring and control over the production process. Taking the mineral processing plant as an example, automatic control systems are configured for crushing system interlocking, ore bin level detection, material metering, slurry concentration testing, liquid level monitoring, pressure monitoring and concentration measurement. All systems are connected to the information centre to realise automated, intelligent and unmanned operation of critical control links. A process cloud platform is applied in the processing plant to upload equipment operating parameters and on-site monitoring data to the data analysis centre. This improves equipment management efficiency, greatly saves manpower and optimises corporate management workflows.