en.Wedoany.com Reported - China Copper Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Copper") is advancing its green and low-carbon transformation by implementing measures to reduce carbon emissions, cut pollution, and expand green initiatives across the entire copper, lead, and zinc industrial chain. Green indicators have been incorporated into business performance assessments, resulting in substantial reductions in comprehensive energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per 10,000 yuan of output value.
China Copper has established a "dual carbon" work leadership group led by its top management, building a three-pronged promotion system integrating "strategy, institution, and assessment." By setting up an energy and carbon emission monitoring and statistical system, the company achieves precise traceability of carbon footprints in production processes. By the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China Copper's comprehensive energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per 10,000 yuan of output value had significantly decreased compared to 2020. The proportion of benchmark production capacity for comprehensive energy consumption in copper, lead, and zinc smelting reached 100%. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the company cumulatively established 11 green mines and 11 green factories, increased green energy consumption by 11 percentage points compared to 2020, and boosted recycled metal consumption by 11.90% compared to 2024.
In terms of technological innovation, China Copper focuses its R&D efforts on energy conservation and carbon reduction throughout the entire production process. In the mining sector, eight core technologies were included in the Ministry of Natural Resources' "Catalogue of Advanced Applicable Technologies for Mineral Resource Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization (2025 Edition)." In the smelting sector, its subsidiaries have broken through key technologies for large-scale continuous hot-state copper smelting using a triple furnace system, achieving continuous hot-state production and reducing production energy consumption by 3.84%, meeting the national first-class energy consumption standard. Additionally, they have overcome key technologies for core equipment and processes in large-scale copper smelting with double flash furnaces, advanced energy-saving and carbon-reduction technologies for copper resource bath smelting, and extended the furnace life of double-side-blown furnaces by 10%, achieving a "three-year, two-inspection" cycle. In standard setting, China Copper has led the drafting of carbon footprint accounting standards (PCR) for seven products, including lead concentrate and zinc concentrate, and completed carbon footprint certification for ten products, including lead ingots, zinc ingots, and cathode copper, achieving full coverage of carbon footprint certification for all product types across the copper, lead, and zinc industrial chain. Furthermore, the "Kun'an" large model AI scenario "Copper Smelting Intelligent Smelting" has been selected as one of the first batch of strategic high-value AI scenarios for central enterprises by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, enabling intelligent endpoint determination in the copper smelting process based on the large model platform. To date, China Copper has promoted the construction of "15+N" smart factories (mines), with Southwest Copper receiving the 2025 Excellence-level Smart Factory certification and six enterprises receiving Advanced-level Smart Factory certification.
In the production process, green development is achieved at the mining end. The Pulang Copper Mine uses the natural caving method, achieving a 100% recovery rate in the mining area. Huize Mining applies paste backfill technology, reusing solid waste such as waste rock and tailings for underground backfilling. At the smelting end, green breakthroughs are realized. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China Copper's waste heat recovery increased by 57% year-on-year, and waste heat power generation rose by 77%. Southwest Copper adopts a short-process "side-blown smelting + top-blown converting + rotary anode furnace refining" hot-state triple furnace process, reducing comprehensive energy consumption for copper smelting by 3.84% compared to the first-class indicator. At the processing end, green upgrades are achieved. In the copper-based materials sector, breakthroughs have been made in key preparation technologies for high-purity heat-resistant oxygen-free copper and high-strength wear-resistant aluminum bronze, as well as in copper alloy technology for lead frames used in integrated circuits, with product performance reaching internationally advanced levels.
China Copper drives the transformation of ecological benefits into economic benefits through the dual engines of industrial upgrading and circular economy. In terms of large-scale absorption of recycled copper, a closed-loop "resource-product-renewable resource" system has been established. Central China Copper and Luoyang Copper Processing recycle and utilize copper material offcuts from customers, significantly reducing raw material costs in 2025. The recycled copper resource recycling project of Yunnan Nonferrous Metals can annually convert 50,000 tons of "urban mines" into high-purity cathode copper, saving 46 kilograms of standard coal per ton of recycled copper. Distributed photovoltaic projects at six enterprises, including Southwest Copper and Luoyang Copper Processing, generate approximately 69 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, reducing carbon emissions by about 70,000 tons. In 2025, China Copper's major pollutant emissions significantly decreased compared to 2020, with particulate matter emissions reduced by nearly 60%, sulfur dioxide emissions down by 24%, the comprehensive utilization rate of general solid waste increased by 3.48 percentage points, newly added mine restoration and treatment area exceeding 500 hectares, and the compliant disposal rate of hazardous waste maintained at 100%.
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