A hill composed of industrial dust at the Anshan Iron and Steel Company in northeast China's Liaoning province will be gradually turned into a forest and a leisure destination for local residents, officials with the steel company said.
The company, called An'gang in Chinese and one of the country's major steel producers, recently launched a program to cultivate its dust hill of tailings.
The 110-meter-high hill, which has caused serious pollution to the local environment, began to take shape in 1956 and now covers an area of over one million square meters.
Officials with the company said the environmental program will last ten years. The company will invest 600,000 yuan (over US$72,000) into the program this year and 400,000 trees will be planted.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2003)