随着中国政府强制关停一些造成污染的矿场和加工厂，中国治理环境的努力，正逐渐将一些金属价格推向创纪录高点。
尽管中国对石油和铜等原材料的渴望世人皆知，但它同时也是许多矿物和金属的最大生产国，其中包括煤、铅，以及像锑这样鲜为人知的大宗商品。
中国政府大力治理环境，对此感受最强烈的莫过于锑市场——锑是一种用于儿童服装等防火物品的金属。
中国锑产量占到全球总产量的90%，其中大部分产自被誉为“世界锑都”的冷水江。
中国牢牢掌握着锑市场的主导地位，其环境政策出现的任何改变，都会立刻在锑交易和价格中得到反映。
自2009年1月以来，随着中国政府取缔造成污染的锑矿开采，锑价格已升至每吨近1.1万美元的高点，涨幅高达150%。
就在10年前，锑的交易价仅为每吨1200美元。目前，这种金属仍没有合适的替代品。
近些年来，中国一直试图强制关停那些不环保的金属生产商，其中包括一些钢厂和铅厂。
但地方官员要倚赖矿场和加工厂来拉动就业和创造税收，有时还从中受贿，因此，对于北京方面的计划百般阻挠。
据欧洲交易员表示，今年，全中国约有三分之一的锑产能被叫停，这一迹象表明，中国政府在认真地要求地方官员服从中央计划，更环保地生产大宗商品。
锑价高涨让用户苦不堪言，他们别无选择，只能继续购买供应量缩减的锑。
英国五金资源(Wogen Resources)的锑交易员艾伦•克尔(Allan Kerr)表示：“高锑价让用户只能勉强度日。”
中国政府要求矿商减少污染并加强安全的行动，还推高了媒、铅、锡和稀土金属的价格。
冷水江地处湖南省偏远山区，当地官员们已关闭了100多家非法锑矿和加工厂，仅留下两家大型加工厂仍在运行。
一些业内高管和当地官员表示，少数几家加工厂，一旦符合了环保规定，仍可重新开工，但其余的要永久性关闭。
“政府这次动了真格，”锑加工厂主蒋勇生（音）说道。他的工厂没有经营许可证，已被冷水江政府勒令停工。
他的加工厂已被拆除，短期内看不到再次开工的希望。
多年的无序开采已将该地区茂盛的植被破坏殆尽，只剩下坑坑洼洼的地面，到处是光秃秃的淤积土和尾矿，或残留物。
英国《金融时报》记者访问这里时，看到一个幼童正在有毒的废弃物里玩耍。脸上、身上满是尘土。
有关部门安排500个家庭迁出了旧居，这些房屋夹在成堆的尾矿当中，堆得比他们的屋顶还高。
“这里的天总是灰的，”一位在锡矿山长大的居民这样说道。那里离冷水江不远，是锑矿开采的集中地。
当地官员并未公布因涉及锑空气污染而患癌症死亡的人数，但也没有试图隐瞒当地居民肺癌患病率较高的事实。
一些民间组织已经就与锑加工有关的肺癌死亡和中毒提出了抗议。
若是在中国其它地区，类似的抗议很快就会被镇压下去，但在冷水江则不同。当地官员们已开始采取措施，通过一项关闭和整合计划，清洁该地区的土壤、空气、食物和水。
中央政府下达的文件在冷水江得到了有力的执行，力度在全国其它地区十分罕见——其它地区对环保法令往往置若罔闻。
多年来，冷水江一直面临治理环境的压力，但去年，中国政府将该市列为全国44个“资源枯竭型城市”之一。
中国总理温家宝访问湖南省，明确表示了政府的态度：是时候认真治理环境了。
湖南省另一座城市的数名地方政府官员，因收受非法矿商的贿赂而获刑，加之冷水江一起导致26名矿工遇难的矿难，都推动了问题的解决。
湖南省林业科学研究院(Hunan Institute of the Chinese Academy of Forestry)教授童方平表示：“百分之百的非法矿场都已被关闭，且没有再开。政府监督非常严格。”
非法生产商可能禁不住高锑价的诱惑而行贿，以恢复生产。但一个非法锑矿主称，“没人敢这样做”。
当地居民、锑矿主和地方官员的看法十分肯定：“政府这次真的动了真格。”
但对灭火剂行业而言，这可算不上什么好消息。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034686
China’s efforts to clean its environment are sending some metals prices to record highs as Beijing forces the closure of polluting mines and processing plants.
Although China is known for its appetite for raw materials including oil and copper, it is the largest producer of minerals and metals ranging from coal and lead to little-known commodities such as antimony.
The impact of Beijing’s environmental push has been felt most acutely in the market for antimony, a metal used for fireproofing items, including children’s clothing.
China produces 90 per cent of output.
Lengshuijiang, known as the world’s antimony capital, is where much of it is mined.
China’s dominance in antimony is so great that any change in its environmental policy is felt immediately in trading and prices.
As Beijing has clamped down on polluting mining, the antimony price has risen to a high of nearly $11,000 a tonne, a 150 per cent increase since January 2009.
A decade ago the metal, for which there are no real substitutes, traded as low as $1,200.
China has been trying for years to force closures of environmentally inefficient producers of metals including steel and lead.
But local officials, who rely on mines and processing plants for jobs, tax revenues and sometimes bribes, have thwarted Beijing’s intentions.
This year, in a sign that the government is serious about forcing local authorities to comply with a plan for making commodities production greener, about a third of antimony capacity across China has been shuttered, European traders say.
The price spikes are hurting users, who have little option but to continue buying the small amounts of antimony available.
“Consumers are hand to mouth due to the high prices,” Allan Kerr, an antimony trader at Wogen in London, says.
The drive to cut pollution and improve safety in mines has also pushed higher the cost of coal, lead, tin and rare earth metals.
In Lengshuijiang, in a remote area of mountainous Hunan province, officials have closed over 100 illegal mines and processing facilities, leaving only two large processors still functioning.
A handful of other facilities could reopen once they comply with environmental regulations, but the rest will remain permanently closed, industry executives and officials in the area say.
“The government is very serious this time,” Jiang Yongsheng, an unlicensed antimony processor forced out of business by the Lengshuijiang government, says.
His facility was razed and he sees no way to re-enter the business soon.
Years of indiscriminate mining have stripped the area’s lush vegetation, turning it into a moonscape of naked dirt and mine tailings, or leftovers.
One small child was seen playing among the toxic refuse when the Financial Times visited.
His face and body was covered in dust.
Five hundred families have been moved from homes that nestle between piles of ore tailings that rise high above their roofs.
“The sky is always grey here,” one resident, who grew up on Xikuangshan, a nearby hill where antimony mining is concentrated, says.
Local officials do not release figures for cancer deaths due to antimony-related air pollution, but nor do they try to hide the fact that local residents report a high rate of lung cancer.
Community groups have protested at lung cancer deaths and poisoning related to antimony processing.
Unlike in other areas of China, where such protests are quickly suppressed, Lengshuijiang officials have begun taking steps to clean the area’s soils, air, food and water, with a programme of closures and consolidation.
Beijing has managed to get its way in Lengshuijiang, to a degree that is rare in the rest of the country, where green edicts often fall on deaf ears.
Lengshuijiang had been under pressure for years to clean up, but last year Beijing declared the city one of 44 “natural resource exhausted cities”.
Wen Jiabao, premier, visited Hunan to drive home the point: time to get serious on the environment.
The execution of a couple of local government officials who took bribes from illegal mines in another Hunan city and a Lengshuijiang mine accident in which 26 miners died, clinched the matter.
Tong Fangping, a professor at the Hunan Institute of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, says: “One hundred per cent of illegal mines have been closed and not reopened. Government supervision is very strict.”
With antimony prices so high, illegal producers might be tempted to pay bribes to resume production. But one illegal antimony miner says “no one would dare”.
The verdict from residents, antimony producers and officials is unwavering: “The government is really serious this time.”
That could be bad news for the fire retardant industry.
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