Driving Factors of Land Degradation in Metal and Non-Metal Mining Areas

Since the starting of the State Major Basic Sci-tech Research Program in 2014, in line with the technical program and the classification system developed for the investigation, eleven representative mining areas in Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Gansu have been investigated, and comparative analysis done of the metal and non-metal mining areas for differences in soil heavy metal pollution, land destruction and land use alteration. Results show that the metal mining areas are generally higher than the non-metal mining areas in soil heavy metal pollution, and mine excavation methods are an important factor of land destruction. Open-cast mining or open-cast/underground mining, on the whole, damages more land than underground mining does.