Guoda Company: Growing in a Circular Economy

Between Zones A and B of the Guoda Industrial Park lies a lake shaped like the Arabic numeral "8," which Guoda employees descriptively call the "8"-shaped lake. Previously, the lake was barren; it would not be an exaggeration to say it didn't even have a single blade of grass.

To address production water needs, in 2005, Guoda Company renovated the "8"-shaped lake into a recycled water circulation pool. They dredged the lakebed, replenished the water source, stocked the lake with fish fry, and planted willow, sycamore, and peach trees around the lake. Now, the "8"-shaped lake has transformed from a "supply station" for production water into a "transfer station" for recycled water. Every day, a continuous flow of recycled production water enters and exits the lake. Not only are reeds swaying and fish swimming in groups, but every summer and autumn, flocks of wild ducks can be seen frolicking in the water.

What transformed the "8"-shaped lake into what it is today? "The implementation of a circular economy has yielded significant energy conservation and emission reduction results." When discussing the changes in the company and the surrounding environment, Guoda employees feel deeply about it.

In recent years, Guoda Company has adhered to the Scientific Outlook on Development, pursuing a circular economy. Leveraging its leading domestic and international technological advantages, it has implemented circular economy projects such as "Comprehensive Utilization of Low-Grade Associated Gold Mines," "Comprehensive Utilization of Gold Tailings," and "Waste-Free Extraction of Multiple Elements from Complex Gold-Bearing Minerals." Through the comprehensive utilization of various resources, and by addressing waste residue, waste heat, and waste gas, the company has explored a circular production model of "resources-products-waste-recycled resources-recycled products," significantly enhancing its core competitiveness.

In recent years, the company has successively won one second-class National Science and Technology Progress Award, two national debt interest subsidy projects, one national key demonstration project for resource conservation and environmental protection, and one National Torch Plan project. It has also been awarded numerous honors, including National Major Demonstration Enterprise for Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection, National Torch Plan Key High-tech Enterprise, Star Enterprise in China's Gold Industry, Shandong Province Excellent Enterprise in On-site Management, Top Ten Innovative Enterprises in Shandong Province, and national, provincial, and municipal-level circular economy demonstration enterprises.

Comprehensive Utilization of Low-Grade Gold Mines: "Panning for Gold" from Waste Residue

In the past, people often referred to the byproducts of resource utilization as "waste." This is actually a misconception; they should be considered another type of resource. The gold smelting and recovery process generates a large amount of waste heat steam, as well as a large amount of waste residue and wastewater. If the energy and valuable elements within are not recovered and reused, it not only wastes resources but also pollutes the environment.

Previously, high-grade portions of cyanide tailings from gold smelting enterprises were sold at low prices to sulfuric acid manufacturers, while low-grade portions were piled up on the factory grounds of the respective smelting enterprises, serving no purpose and occupying land. Enterprises had to invest to ensure these tailings did not pollute the land or water sources and did not cause dust, resulting in significant environmental pressure and resource waste.

In 2001, Guoda Company established the "Comprehensive Utilization of Low-Grade Associated Gold Mines" project. Utilizing independently developed two-stage roasting and waste heat power generation technology, it carried out secondary recycling and utilization of cyanide tailings in the Zhaoyuan surrounding areas. While using sulfur in cyanide tailings for acid production, waste heat from sulfuric acid manufacturing is recovered. Steam is generated through waste heat boilers to drive steam turbines for power generation. The high-temperature steam and circulating water after power generation are used to replace coal-fired boilers for unified heating of production and living areas and to heat the copper liquid in the electrolytic copper production workshop. Tailings after acid production are used to extract iron concentrate, and waste residue is used as raw material for building material factories to produce cement and other building materials.

The completion and commissioning of this project not only successfully solved the problem of cyanide tailings storage pollution from gold smelting enterprises, but also ensured that the production process does not generate secondary pollution. It truly achieves recycling and transforms waste into treasure, becoming an important economic growth point and a highlight of Guoda Company's circular economy.

Comprehensive Utilization of Gold Tailings: Pursuing Maximum Efficiency

Currently, due to the extensive development stage of China's mineral resources, many gold smelting enterprises generally only recover gold and a small amount of silver from concentrates, resulting in relatively low resource utilization rates. The tailings after gold extraction still contain a large number of valuable elements, such as sulfur, iron, and small amounts of gold, silver, and copper. "How can these resources be regenerated?" Guoda Company implemented the comprehensive utilization project for gold tailings.

The comprehensive utilization project for gold tailings is a key project for Guoda Company to develop a circular economy and improve resource utilization. The main processes include raw material flotation pretreatment, high-grade sulfur concentrate roasting and acid production, waste heat power generation, iron concentrate processing, and waste residue building material processing, forming a comprehensive recycling system. The total investment for the entire project is 158 million yuan, with a designed scale of an additional annual processing capacity of 280,000 tons. The raw material pretreatment process in this project has been put into operation and has reached its production target. The design work for high-grade sulfur concentrate roasting and acid production, waste heat power generation, waste residue building material processing, and other process systems is also underway. The entire project is planned to be completed and commissioned in the first half of 2009. After commissioning, it is expected to achieve an annual sales revenue of 157.8 million yuan and a total profit of more than 75 million yuan.

Because this project has low production costs and high resource utilization rates, it can recover various valuable elements, recover energy, and use waste residue to manufacture building materials, resulting in significant comprehensive economic benefits. It has important demonstration and driving effects on domestic gold smelting enterprises and was therefore rated as a fifth batch of national debt projects for resource conservation and environmental protection in 2007.

Extraction of Multiple Elements from Complex Minerals: Achieving Waste-Free Production

In recent years, with the increasingly fierce competition in the gold smelting raw material market, the complexity of raw materials has also become increasingly apparent. Practice has proven that through continuous technological development, functional evolution, and waste resource management, gold smelting enterprises can not only provide society with pure gold and silver but can also further expand the value innovation process, becoming a center for the remanufacturing and transformation of clean energy, and making the ultimate tailings after thorough extraction into a raw material supply base for steel mills.

Guoda Company's research and development of the "New Technological System for Waste-Free Extraction of Multiple Elements from Complex Gold-Bearing Minerals" has solved a major issue in the gold smelting industry where economic and environmental benefits are difficult to develop simultaneously. It is the first of its kind in the international and domestic gold industry production and has achieved internationally leading technology. Its industrial application has filled a gap in this technical field and won the National Science and Technology Progress Second Prize in 2001.

Using this technology, Guoda Company invested 130 million yuan in technological transformation funds, gradually completing 23 major technological transformation projects, forming an intelligent comprehensive utilization process system that can process 600 tons of complex gold-bearing minerals per day and extract multiple elements from complex gold-bearing minerals without waste. The entire process system integrates new technologies from the non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical, and gold smelting industries. It can not only recover gold and silver at low cost and high recovery rates but can also comprehensively recover various valuable elements such as copper, sulfur, and iron from gold concentrates. In addition, the wastewater generated by the entire process system is treated and returned to the production system for recycling, achieving zero wastewater discharge, and the waste residue is used as an additive in cement manufacturing, truly achieving waste-free production.

The implementation of a circular economy has enabled the GuoDa Company to achieve sustainable development in the face of fierce industry competition. The company's overall competitiveness has further improved, and its economic benefits have seen a significant increase for six consecutive years. In 2007, GuoDa Company achieved sales revenue of 1.57 billion yuan and profits and taxes exceeding 100 million yuan, setting new historical highs for various economic indicators and adding a bright spot to Zhaoyuan City's new round of rapid economic development.