• Based on the environmental protection principle of “protection first, prevention oriented, comprehensive treatment, public participation, liability for damage”, the Company strictly abides by the current environmental regulations promulgated in all countries and regions where the Company is operating, and established a series of environmental systems according to laws and regulations, including the “Environmental Protection Safety System” and the “Operation Management of Environmental Protection Facilities”, so as to ensure the strict management of potential environmental impact. The Company appoints the General Manager to take direct responsibility for environmental protection work, and hold weekly meeting to discuss the work and problems related to environmental protection. In order to urge the employees to fulfill their environmental protection responsibilities practically and effectively, the Company makes the reward and punishment rules for environmental protection, so as to really achieve “environmental protection is everyone’s responsibility”.

• In 2022, the Company formulated the “Environmental Protection Policy”, and made the commitment to coordinate the relationship between business development and environmental protection, and practice the responsible natural resource management.

Mineral Resources 

• Since the Company was identified as a green mine pilot enterprise by the State in 2014, it has always been adhering to the strategic goal of “building green mines solidly, and exploiting mineral resources in a scientific and reasonable way”, and making full use of the precious mineral resources by means of scientific management and rational exploitation, so as to lay a solid resource foundation for sustainable development of the Company.

• In order to conserve the natural resources and improve the utilization efficiency of mineral resources, the Company formulates and updates the ore dissolving scheme according to the analysis results of the ore dissolving channel, brine mining channel, resource endowment and ecological environment characteristics of the mining area, and implements the closed mining in turn gradually;

• With the solid-liquid transformation technology, the Company reduces energy consumption and waste emissions to a significant extent. Furthermore, the Company makes technological innovation constantly, and conducts technology research and development for comprehensive exploitation of sodium, magnesium, lithium, boron, and other resources on the basis of potassium products, so as to further improve the resource utilization efficiency. The Company began to build a battery-grade lithium carbonate production line in 2018, and completed construction and put it into production by the end of 2019. The tail brine generated from production of potash fertilizer is used for production of lithium carbonate, so as to improve the comprehensive utilization efficiency of resources. 

• The Company sets relevant management methods such as raw brine recovery standard and raw ore sampling method, makes quarterly performance assessment on raw ore, consumables, water resource consumption, energy consumption, and recovery rate, and cultivates the employees’ awareness of efficiency. The Company increases the recovery rate of potassium chloride from 60% in 2020 to 62.5% in 2022, and increases the recovery rate of lithium carbonate to more than 95% through continuous technological updating and iteration.

• The Company purchases automation equipment continuously, in order to raise the level of accurate control and operation, and avoid the waste of resources caused by manual operation.

Water Resources 

• Ecological protection: The Company implements the ecological water protection guidelines of “comprehensive planning, overall layout, integrated utilization, turning harm into benefit” thoroughly, protects the water sources, stipulates that the vegetation related to water source protection shall not be destroyed, and tests and controls the water quality of the water sources on a regular basis.

• Scientific water intake: The Company conducts water resource demonstration for the water supply project at Bairiqili Gully and Galan Beach in Dagele Township, analyzes the rationality of water use, the conditions of water intake source, the impact of water intake and other factors, meets the reasonable requirements of water use and intake for the construction project, provides scientific basis for water intake permit and approval for the construction project, and achieves efficient use and scientific management of water resources.

• Water conservation: The Water Conservation Department of the Company shall make annual water conservation index plan, and break down the plan and assigns the relevant key tasks to the departments, including setting and assessment of water consumption quota, publicity and education on water conservation, collection of condensed water evaporated by MVR (steam machinery recompression technology), and dispatch of specialists for regular inspection. 

• Recycling: The Company strengthens technological innovation continuously, collects the water discharged from the workshop in a unified manner, and carries out secondary recycling by high pressure reverse osmosis, so as to improve the water yield to a great extent, reduce the consumption of fresh water, and lay a foundation for sustainable development of the circular economy ecosystem of the salt lake. The Company makes comprehensive use of tail liquid resources in the process of ore dissolving to achieve 100% recycling. First, we lead the old brine discharged from the potash fertilizer production workshops in the mining areas to the old brine salt pan of the lithium industry through the brine diversion channel, which is used as the basis for adsorption and extraction of lithium. The old brine produced from extraction of lithium is returned to the potash fertilizer salt pan through the brine delivery channel to implement the process of solid-liquid transformation, so that the solid magnesium, lithium and potassium ores can be dissolved into a liquid state, so as to improve the quality of brine in the mining areas. The Company achieves the recycling of resources in the whole process of production, improves the ecology of the salt lake while guaranteeing the production, ensures the economic benefits and the environmental benefits simultaneously, and takes the road of civilized development.

• Waste water discharge: The Company is committed to maximizing the comprehensive utilization of waste water, conducting process research and development constantly, strengthening the recycling of water resources, and achieving 100% recycling of production water. It is required to take anti-seepage measures and containment measures in the temporary storage places of waste water, in order to prevent the occurrence of water pollution accidents.

• In 2022, the Company produces 1,306,700 tons of potassium chloride and 10,500 tons of lithium carbonate, achieves the operating income of RMB 8.194 billion Yuan and the net profit of RMB 5.655 billion Yuan. In 2022, the total water consumption is 48,615,271.39m³, the water consumption density is 59.33m³ for the operating revenue of RMB 10,000 Yuan, the water consumption per unit product of potassium chloride is 7.2 tons, which is lower than that required in the environmental protection regulation by 0.8 tons/unit product; the amount of recycled water/reused water is approximately 47,256,915.50m³ (With natural evaporation in the process), and the recycling rate ignoring evaporation reaches 100%.

Energy

• The Company attaches great importance to energy management, implements the three-level management system involving company, department and workshop, sets up the energy system review working group, draws up a series of procedural documents such as the “Energy Management System”, the “Energy Performance Parameter Control Procedure”, and the “Energy Management Manual”, builds ISO 50001 energy management system, enhances the energy management capability and level of the Company, establishes the leading energy efficiency demonstration benchmark in the industry, and fulfill the Company’s social responsibility and commitment effectively. In order to improve the employees’ awareness of energy efficiency, the Company organizes energy management training on a regular basis, and conducts energy efficiency assessment on the production departments on a quarterly basis. The Company phases out the obsolete equipment with high energy consumption gradually, and replace with the new equipment featured by energy conservation and environmental protection. In addition, the Company further enhances the energy efficiency level and reduces energy consumption by the energy conservation projects such as air compressor station cooling and heat source recycling, and comprehensive utilization and transformation of waste heat. 

Climate Risk Identification and Response

Due to the global warming, the rainfall in Golmud presents a rising trend. The Company analyzes the distribution of rivers, hydrology, topography and landform in the mining area, makes the “Emergency Response Plan for Flood Control”,establishes the flood control emergency leading group, carries out flood control emergency drill every year, and checks and eliminates hidden dangers on a regular basis.

The increase in rainfall and the change in temperature arising from the climate change have a certain impact on the rate of ore production. In 2022, the Company starts to make the mineral resources development plan with a cycle of five years, and strives to ensure that the total annual output of potassium chloride shall not be less than 1.00 million tons and the annual output of lithium carbonate shall reach 10,000 tons while the grade of raw brine shall remain unchanged. At the same time, the Company expands resource reserves actively, and obtains the mining rights and exploration rights of potassium and lithium resources in Mamicuo Salt Lake in Tibet, the potash salt mine in Xaythany District and Pawo District of Vientiane Capital, Lao, Longmusuo Salt Lake and Jieze Chaka Salt Lake in Tibet.

Carbon emissions

The Company strictly controls the emissions of carbon dioxide to help mitigate the climate warming. The Company makes the “Greenhouse Gas Emission Plan” every year and engages the third-party agency to verify the carbon emissions, makes statistics of data activity levels in different types of emission, and calculates the total emissions of carbon dioxide by the Company. The Company actively participates in the formulation of national carbon emission standards to make contribution to the standardized process of carbon emission reduction in the industry.

• In order to increase the operation efficiency of the Company’s environmental protection treatment facilities and strengthen the treatment of “three wastes”, the Safety and Environmental Protection Office shall take the responsibility for supervision and management of waste gas treatment, waste water treatment and solid waste treatment facilities, reduce waste discharge by effective control means, and improve the ecological environment treatment capacity.

• Waste gas: In order to increase the operation efficiency of the Company’s environmental protection treatment facilities and strengthen the treatment of “three wastes”, the Safety and Environmental Protection Office shall take the responsibility for supervision and management of waste gas treatment, waste water treatment and solid waste treatment facilities, reduce waste discharge by effective control means, and improve the ecological environment treatment capacity. The Company strictly controls the compliant emission of nitrogen oxides, and controls the emission of particulate matter by means of cyclone, water bath, and bag dust removal, and the filtering rate of exhaust dust particle can reach 98%.

• Solid waste: The Company arranges fixed discharge site for tail salt, and uses tail salt storage site to build dam; with the new salt-washing workshop project, the Company increases the comprehensive utilization efficiency of potassium resources, and engages the qualified third-party agency to dispose of the plastic woven bag packaging of the raw material sodium carbonate purchased, so as to avoid stacking of waste, and reach the recycling rate of approximately 100%.

the road built with tail salt