A rare earth subsidiary of state-run Aluminium Corp of China (Chinalco, 中國鋁業) in the southwestern region of Guangxi has repeatedly breached pollution rules and contaminated nearby land, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment said following an inspection of the firm.
Earlier this month, a central government environmental inspection team found that affiliates of the Chinalco subsidiary, Guangxi Nonferrous Rare Earth Development Co Ltd (廣西稀土研發), failed to properly rectify violations and “seriously polluted the surrounding environment,” the ministry said in a statement published late on Wednesday.
Guangxi Nonferrous was in 2018 punished for environmental violations, along with Chinalco’s subsidiary in northwestern China.
Some mining projects run by Guangxi Nonferrous’ units exceeded their approved limits, and built outdated and illegal production facilities, the statement said.
“The inspection found ... obvious problems of legal violations, chaotic environmental management and relatively large environmental risks at the Guangxi rare earth company,” it said, adding that Chinalco must investigate the problems and make corrections.
A company spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
China began a nationwide environmental auditing program in 2016, focusing on compliance in its provinces and regions. It was then expanded to giant state-owned firms such as Minmetals, which was accused of being a “big corporate bully” in 2017 after failing to fix repeated violations.
The latest round of audits also included the China National Building Materials Corp (中國建築材料), and found that one of its subsidiaries had not only failed to rectify violations, but also tried to cover them up, the ministry said in a separate statement on Wednesday.
As of Sunday, environmental inspectors had handled 6,047 complaints, issued 46.7 million yuan (US$6.85 million) in fines and detained 30 people, the ministry said on Tuesday.
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