Attach Importance to Sustainable Development of Mining Industry 　　China Mining Industry Association recently held a symposium on sustainable development of mining industry in Beijing. The academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering and some famous experts from related fields made some valuable proposals at the symposium. 　　First the academicians and experts analyzed the situation of mining in China. They generally agree that the mining industry has made great progress since opening up of China. There are about ten thousand state-owned mines and 240 thousand small-sized mines, with a technical workforce of 21 million. The annual amount of ores produced comes to about 5 billion tons, ranking third in the world. Mineral products and energy supply can meet the basic demand for national economic construction. But there are still some serious problems that have to be solved. The most fundamental one is that a great amount of mining resources is needed while a small average amount is provided due to a large population and a speedy development of the economy. With respect to mining exploitation, the ascertained deposits are depleted rapidly while the growth of deposit reserve is very slow. Some other problems as damage that has been brought about to the biological environment, lack of funds, obsolete mining technology, low efficiency and personnel redundancy that have impeded the development of the industry seriously. 　　In the view of the academicians and experts, for sustainable development of mining in China mining production should be carried out in an intensive way. HomeNews 1999-02-04 Page5 Full Story in Chinese