Page 84 - Hualien Sustainable Living Bilingual Magazine

“Mining’s impact on the environment must be minimized as much as possible; after mining, the environment must be restored to nature.”TCC established a plant in Heping Village, Hualien, more than 20 years ago in cooperation with the government’s cement industry relocation plan. The company’s mines have passed the government's environmental impact assessments and have been granted a mining permit. The mine’s use Asia’s most advanced“hilltop platform phased mining” with a“vertical shaft transportation system”. The transportation of ore is completely underground, automated, and environmentally friendly, thereby lowering the impact of ore mining and transportation. Ecosystem restoration is carried out at the same time as mining. TCC conducts annual biodiversity surveys, observes environmental changes, and has categorized the terrestrial ecosystem of the mine into flora and fauna to compile statistics on species, attributes, distribution areas, and numbers. In addition, maps of the distribution of plant growing areas and the sighting locations of conservation-status animals are also produced by the company. TCC also commissions external experts to conduct environmental monitoring on a quarterly basis in order to manage the results of ecological restoration at the mine and to plan related industry-academia cooperation. 79