One meter below the silty loess in northern China, private miners discovered iron ore. Now they are driving bulldozers and other machinery all over the Loess Plateau in search of more, destroying the natural environment along the way.

The mining has become rampant in Hunyuan and Tianzhen counties in Shanxi Province, jeopardizing the fragile ecological environment, local authorities said.

"Private miners have dug open hard-grown farmland and plantations," said You Jianhua, head of the Hunyuan land resources bureau. They are "all over" a 1,900-square-kilometer area of "mountains and fields," he said.

"Several hills have been removed by miners and when the rains come the land is prone to be washed away," said Li Yongping, a villager in Mujiazhuang, Hunyuan County.

Hunyuan is home to Mount Heng, known as one of the Five Sacred Mountains in China. But a state highway leading to the spot has become dusty and jammed by ore-loaded trucks.

A road sign reading "Scenic Spot, No Trucks" at the entrance to the site has been covered with adhesive tape.

The mining has also jeopardized the anti-desertification work in Tianzhen County, which is 206 kilometers west of Beijing. There, Xinhua reporters witnessed 20- to 30-meter deep mining pits.

Tianzhen County is where some of the storms that affect Beijing and Tianjin originate. The central and provincial governments have spent large amounts of funds to grow plantations and subsidize farmers in Tianzhen.

"I saw a private miner drive a bulldozer onto my farmland one morning. When I came up to stop him, he asked me to give up farming. He said he would compensate me 6,660 yuan per mu (1 mu equals 0.06 hectare)," said a local farmer surnamed Liu.

He said he and many other villagers had taken the offers, mainly because the miners had already destroyed the roads and turned farmlands in mines.

The Tianzhen county government vowed to check the mining last week and the government efforts have taken some effect. Private mining in Tianzhen has been basically halted over the weekend. But the mining in Hunyuan are still fierce.

Wang Xiaochen, a professor with Shanxi University, called on provincial discipline authorities to make an inspection on bribery in the county- and township-level governments, which should be blamed for the lack of supervision on the mining sector.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2010)