Hainan Economic and Social New Observation: The Green Transformation of Mountain and Sea Li Villages

China News Service, Hainan Changjiang, April 2 — With “Mountain and Sea, Li Township” as its moniker, Changjiang Li Autonomous County in western Hainan, a traditional industrial base, takes industries such as clean energy as key drivers. It is working hard to address development challenges including resource depletion and environmental protection, and has blazed a new green transformation path for a resource-based region as Hainan’s Free Trade Port is built.

Changjiang is Hainan’s main production area for iron ore and cement. The Shiluo Iron Mine—known as “Asia’s number one richest iron ore”—is located here. Due to limitations in early mining and beneficiation technology, about 300 million tons of tailings slag stones could not be efficiently utilized. In addition, in recent years, local iron ore resources in the area have been trending toward exhaustion, and the traditional development model faces bottlenecks.

In 2011, Changjiang was listed by the State Council as part of the country’s third batch of “resource-exhausted cities.” After being selected in 2022 for the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s list of “waste-free city” construction, Changjiang has built its development based on this positioning. Guided by Hainan’s policy direction of building an ecological province, it has introduced multiple resource recycling companies to promote green industrial transformation and upgrading.

The picture shows products separated from tailings slag stones. Photo by Chen Yingqing

“Finely Process 300 Million Tons” of Tailings Slag Stones

At Zhixin Environmental Protection Technology (Changjiang) Co., Ltd., tailings slag stones are transformed into various eco-friendly building materials through multiple processes such as washing, crushing, and screening.

The company’s chairman Huang Wen-gui told reporters that tailings slag stones are mainly made up of residual iron resources, tailings mud, and stones. Through full-chain tailings slag resource utilization technology, the company performs refined separation, achieving “finely process them all.”

According to the company, the separated high-grade iron ore can be sold directly; low-grade iron ore, after purification, is processed into iron concentrate, with a value of up to 700 yuan per ton; tailings mud is made into building materials such as eco-friendly bricks, dock bricks, concrete, and mortar; and stones are processed into sand-and-gravel aggregates of different particle sizes, used as raw materials for asphalt and other building materials.

“Phase I is designed to handle 3 million tons of tailings slag stones per year; after the technical upgrades, it will be increased to 4 million tons. The annual output value can reach 280 million yuan, and the taxes paid will exceed 20 million yuan.” Huang Wen-gui said. “At present, the Phase II project is planned to be completed and put into operation in May this year. By then, the annual scale of tailings slag stones to be handled will reach 10 million tons, providing more than 600 job positions.”

The picture shows food-grade liquid carbon dioxide storage tanks. Photo by Chen Yingqing

“Turning Waste into Treasure” Inside Cement Kilns

During traditional cement production, large amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted. China Resources Cement (Changjiang) Co., Ltd. turns it into treasure by using a demonstration line for efficient capture and utilization of carbon dioxide from low-concentration flue gas in cement kilns.

“Using a flue gas chemical absorption method, this demonstration line captures carbon dioxide. It produces 60,000 tons of food-grade liquid carbon dioxide annually, including 6,000 tons of dry ice, which can be used in fields such as food preservation, welding protection, and beverage production,” said Liao Yueying, deputy general manager of China Resources Cement (Changjiang) Co., Ltd. “The captured carbon dioxide can also be applied in areas including mineralization of aerated concrete, carbon-rich agriculture, and carbonization of recycled construction-waste aggregates.”

Liao Yueying said that fly ash produced after municipal solid waste incineration is mainly disposed of through chelation landfilling, but that method does not constitute resource-based disposal. In the long term, leakage from landfills may become an “improvised time bomb” that harms the environment.

In response, the company has built a project for co-processing fly ash in cement kilns, which can handle 50,000 tons of fly ash per year. Compared with traditional high-temperature melting treatment technology, this project saves 800 kWh of electricity per ton of fly ash processed, achieving emission reduction of 0.44 tons of carbon dioxide—“making it harmless, reducing its volume, and realizing resource utilization, and improving the urban living environment,” Liao Yueying said.

In addition, the company is also focusing on resource-based utilization of construction waste. In the past, construction waste was often disposed of by open dumping or landfilling, which not only takes up land but also risks polluting groundwater and damaging regional ecology. The company has built a construction waste receiving site, which can dispose of 250,000 tons of construction waste each year, including engineering spoil and concrete.

Liao Yueying said that at the receiving site, construction waste can achieve 100% resource-based disposal, and is processed into green building-material products such as recycled aggregates and recycled concrete. In 2025, the related output value is expected to reach 136 million yuan.

The picture shows workers sorting new environmentally friendly cement packaging bags. Photo by Chen Yingqing

Green “Going Global” of Eco-Friendly Cement Packaging Bags

In Changjiang, Conch Huasheng Plastic Packaging Co., Ltd. adheres to the development philosophy of environmental protection, green practices, and intelligent manufacturing. It has introduced a production line for eco-friendly cement packaging bags. With advantages in quality and environmental friendliness, its products have gained strong interest from overseas markets.

In 2025, the company sold 130 million new eco-friendly cement packaging bags, including 78 million exported to countries such as Indonesia and Cambodia, achieving an industrial output value of about 146 million yuan. The company’s general manager Wang Qiang revealed that this year’s first quarter achieved a strong start, with order volume increasing by more than 30% year-on-year.

Eco-friendly cement packaging bags produced by this company use paper-plastic composite materials. While improving sealing performance, they also ensure better moisture resistance during transportation and storage, effectively extending the cement storage period. They have also done away with traditional stitching techniques and instead use heat-press edge sealing technology, addressing the problem of cement powder leakage from the packaging process.

Build a “Zero-Carbon” Sci-Tech Industrial Park

Changjiang’s green transformation also lies in the fact that it has Hainan’s only nuclear power base. Since the first phase’s two generating units began operation, the base has provided Hainan with clean-energy power support ranging from 9 billion to 10 billion kWh each year, accounting for about one-third of the province’s total electricity consumption. After the second phase and the world’s first onshore commercial modular small nuclear reactor, “Linglong One,” are completed, it will inject new momentum into Hainan’s clean-energy development.

Leveraging its nuclear power advantages, Hainan (Changjiang) Clean Energy High-Tech Industrial Park focuses on clean energy, new materials, and high-end manufacturing, aiming to build a “zero-carbon” sci-tech industrial park for the Hainan Free Trade Port. The Economic Development Bureau director of the industrial park management committee, Su Zhuoqi, said that currently the park has 143 registered enterprises, including 4 Fortune Global 500 companies. In 2025, the total industrial output value of enterprises above designated size will be completed at 96.70 billion yuan, an increase of 2.23% year-on-year, accounting for about 88% of Changjiang’s total industrial output value above designated size.

This year, Changjiang has defined that it will take the clean energy high-tech industrial park as the core to apply for pilot programs of provincial-level and national-level zero-carbon park initiatives. It will build a number of distributed energy application scenarios for “photovoltaics + energy storage,” and create a demonstration base for diversified clean energy utilization, including “nuclear +.” (End)