April 24, 2023

Calderys Milestone: Millet Harvest from Mine Rehabilitation Land - in China

In October 2022, Nanwa bentonite mine in China harvested the first bag of millet grain which was produced from the mine's environmentally remediated land. Millet is a small-grained cereal which is suitable to grow in drought and extreme weather. It marks a very important milestone to Calderys’ mine in terms of land reclamation and alternative land use through post-closure.

Crops grew up entirely without using pesticide and environment-sensitive fertilizer, in order to minimize any negative impact on the environment. This also inspired us to take a thoughtful approach to mine life and its surroundings.

Over the past 3 years, Nanwa bentonite mine has transferred the size of more than 3 ha of historically abandoned mining area or wasteland into farming area and plantation, with consistent efforts to the sustainable development of ecosystem and harmonious relationships build-up with local community.

Earth day

Sharing harvest with our customers, one of whom commented, “porridge made of this millet tastes so good. This provided best practice to integrate mining with agriculture, being able to yield pollution-free, green crops.”

“Growing crops by using remediated land can have a good yield, more importantly it helps build up and maintain a healthy local ecosystem and create a means of livelihood.” Lianjun Gao, deputy GM of Chaoyang Bentonite summarized.