Phosphate Mining in Sichuan Province

Greenpeace and Chengdu-based environmental NGO Hengduan Mountain Research Society have released a joint report on the hazards of phosphate mining activities, which supply the manufacture of fertilizers, in Longmen Mountain, Sichuan Province, an area severely stricken by the devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The studies have found that phosphate mining in Longmen Mountain, greatly exacerbates the risk of landslides and other geological disasters, threatening the safety of miners and residents downstream. In addition, phosphate mining has encroached on the region's nature reserve, impacting a native giant panda population. Greenpeace conducted a number of field trips to the Nine Mountain Nature Reserve in Sichuan, in order to investigate threats to a protected nature reserve that is currently housing eleven pandas in the wild. Field surveys in the Mianyuan River valley found that phosphate mining has destroyed much of the vegetation located in the hinterland of the panda habitat.