"Don't raise cubs in tin mines. It's easy to go up the mountain and hard to get down. Don't marry a mason to raise a daughter. There will be no consequences for blowing smoke."
This is a folk song circulated in the tin mines of Loudi, Hunan a hundred years ago.
At that time, tin mine miners carried ore on their backs and crawled in the dark mines with kerosene lamps in their mouths. It was also this tin mine that became the only large-scale industrial and mining area where the Red Army of Chinese Workers and Peasants was stationed during the Long March. More than a thousand miners put down their mining picks, picked up their guns, and embarked on the Long March with the Red Army.
Today, in the same mine, antimony ingot palletizing, transshipment, and feeding are completed by robots and automated production lines, and green electricity is used in the mining area. The once bare mine now has over 80% vegetation coverage, and has become a local "Internet celebrity" check-in attraction.
Recently, reporters from China News Network visited the Tinkuang Shanxing Antimony Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xikuang Antimony), a subsidiary of China Minmetals Corporation, to explore the changes and rebirth of this century-old mine.
The Lengshuijiang Tin Mine actually produces not tin, but antimony.
When the mineral deposit was discovered in 1541, people mistakenly thought it was tin, and the name stuck. The mine was officially opened in 1897. By 1908, the output of antimony products reached half of the world's total, and it was known as the "Antimony Capital of the World".
At that time, Tin Mine was one of the places with the highest concentration of industrial workers in Hunan Province. There were once more than 100,000 miners, but the living environment was extremely harsh.
Yan Jin, a local "third generation mining man", is the commentator of the Tin Mine Exhibition Hall. He told reporters that before liberation, miners in tin mines had long continued the working method of "carrying minerals on their backs and holding kerosene lamps in their mouths". Under such circumstances, no matter how strong a man is, he has to "work for three years and be ill for three years." The average miner can only live to be over 30 years old.
On the other hand, the high population density, poor working environment, and numerous mining tyrants and landowners have made Xikuang the earliest and most vigorous area for the labor movement in Hunan Province, and one of the three major labor movement centers in Hunan.
In November 1935, more than 1,500 members of the Sixth Red Army were stationed in the tin mines. Wang Zhen, the political commissar of the army, held a mass meeting to mobilize the workers to fight against the mining tyrants and reactionary gentry, and to distribute confiscated grain and cloth to poor workers.
Yan Jin recounted a detail. At that time, the Red Army planned to recruit 400 recruits, but the number of applicants far exceeded expectations. Everyone put down their mining pickaxes and picked up their guns. More than a thousand miners' children followed the Red Army and went north to fight against Japan.
From their arrival on November 29 to their departure on December 4, 1935, although the Red Army's time in the tin mines was short, it left a strong red mark.
After the founding of New China, miners gradually got rid of kerosene lamps and used electric lamps, and tin mines also placed technological research and development in an important position.
The changes brought about by technological progress can be glimpsed from the shaft of the Xikkuang Antimony Industry Mining and Concentration Plant.
Zhai Wenbin, director of the Xikuang Mine Antimony Industry Mining and Dressing Plant, told reporters that this straight well built in the 1950s initially used wooden cages to lift ore, and was later transformed to be used for both material and ore lifting.
"In 2025, the factory will renovate the straight shaft, which is currently mainly used for personnel promotion, and reentrant stairs will be added as safety exits to completely rectify major safety hazards." Zhai Wenbin said that the mining and processing plant has promoted advanced underground equipment such as rock drilling rigs, scrapers, and battery locomotives, and gradually realized full-process mechanized production of mining, excavation, and extraction.
More intuitive changes occurred in fine metallurgical plants. Pieces of antimony ingots are fed into the antimony white automated production line. This production line integrates antimony ingot palletizing, storage, transfer, feeding, and product packaging, and has realized automated control of the entire production process.
Yu Jian, deputy director of the Fine Metallurgical Plant, told reporters that a few years ago, the palletizing of antimony ingots could only be completed by manpower. An antimony ingot weighs dozens of kilograms, and a stacked pallet weighs 2.7 tons. The labor intensity is high for workers.
Nowadays, palletizing, storage, transfer and feeding are completed by robots and automation systems. After the system is fully put into production, it not only improves the intrinsic safety level, but also increases the production efficiency by nearly 30%.
At the end of the production line, antimony ingots are smelted into a white powder as fine as flour - antimony trioxide, commonly known as "antimony white". This is an important flame retardant synergist in modern industry. It is not only widely used in plastics, resins, textiles and other materials, but also in automobiles, home appliances and other fields.
From underground to the surface, changes are advancing step by step, and products are moving further and further. At present, the antimony products of Xikkuang Antimony Industry have been exported to more than 50 countries and regions before the national antimony product export control, with a domestic market share of about 30% and a global market share of about 25%.
"A white bird flying over a tin mine will turn black." This is the memory of the tin mines of the older generation.
A century of extensive mining development has left the “Antimony Capital of the World” with mountainous excavations, barren vegetation, severe rocky desertification, and heavy metals such as antimony and arsenic in the soil and water exceeding standards. At that time, it was the norm to be "covered in ashes on a sunny day and covered in mud on a rainy day".
Nowadays, through continuous ecological restoration and management, the once bare mines have regained life. In response to the complex ecological problems existing in the mining area, Xikkuang Antimony Industry cooperated with the local government to adopt an integrated protection and restoration solution for mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grass and sand, and achieved the purpose of collaborative management through engineering measures such as controlling mines, treating polluted water bodies, treating exposed mountains, treating abandoned fields, and treating geological disasters.
In recent years, Xikkuang Antimony Industry has also used idle land in the mining area to build a "photovoltaic + mine restoration" project, with an annual power generation of approximately 6.1 million kilowatt-hours and an annual carbon dioxide emission reduction of approximately 3,200 tons. The century-old mine is moving towards greening and intelligence.
After the tin mine is restored to green, it is a different scene. The "Rose Aegean Sea" was built on the abandoned mine pit, and the continuous stone forest is scattered and undulating, resembling "ten thousand horses galloping"...
Local people say that every time the flowers bloom, it is crowded with tourists and it is as beautiful as a fairy tale world. In recent years, Xikuang District has received more than 500,000 tourists per year on average, and its tourism revenue has exceeded 300 million yuan, driving a large number of relocated residents to enjoy "tourism rice".
In May 2025, the ecological protection and restoration project of this century-old mine was selected as an outstanding case in the United Nations' "Decade of Ecosystem Restoration" action, one of only 20 in the world.
Yan Jin lamented: "We used to desperately want to escape from the tin mines, and we didn't dare to invite others. Now we can responsibly say that here we can see green mountains and green water, and we can remember our homesickness."
