By Deng Jingyin

Zijin Mining Group, China's largest gold producer, plugged a new leak on Friday but only after 500 cubic meters of waste spilled into a river in Shanghang, Fujian Province.

On July 3, the plant was ordered to suspend operations at its copper-producing mine due to a waste water leak. And the wastewater was under control Sunday.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection's investigation team, which left Shanghang after completing their examination into the previous runoff, returned to the mine soon after the accident occurred around 10:30 pm Friday.

As of Saturday, the mining company installed 9,500 meters of pipeline capable of carrying 2,000 cubic meters of water an hour, and they also built a temporary solution pool to increase the storage capacity.

According to a statement issued by Zijin on Saturday, the deputy head of Zijinshan mine and the director of the environmental protection department were suspended due to dereliction of duty.

Four officials were sacked last week including two county chiefs and two environment officials.

On July 3, nearly 9,100 cubic meters of water containing acidic copper leaked into the Tingjiang River from the Zijinshan mine, poisoning 1,890 tons of fish living in a reservoir of the Tingjiang river.

The local government purchased the dead fish at a price of 12 yuan ($1.8) a kilogram from local fish farmers for decontamination treatment to avoid further pollution.

No human illness or deaths have been reported.

Zijin Mining Group issued the preliminary investigation results on July 3 last Friday, stating that the plant ignored government orders to fix its pollution monitoring system.

Authorities discovered that the pollution monitoring system was flawed last year, while Zijin failed to address it.

Zijin was found to be involved in a series of pollution incidents since 2006 in North China's Hebei and South China's Guizhou provinces, according to China Entrepreneur magazine.

Three executives from the smelting plant were detained on criminal charges, the local government said last week.

"The sewage pond is not adequate, so the accident happened after heavy rain…the malfunctioning of the monitoring system also attributed to the accident… multiple reasons, instead of just heavy rain caused the accident as Zijin claimed," Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environ-mental Affairs, a Beijing-based environment protection NGO, told the Global Times Sunday.

Ma, who has tracked Zijin's pollution record for several years, also said that Zijin earlier released false information and delayed publicizing information on its official website about the July 3 accident.

According to Luo Yingnan, president of Zijin Mining Group, Zijin is likely to suffer huge financial losses and expense of about 700 million yuan ($103 million).

"However, it's not possible to estimate the impact on its corporate image," Ma said.

He suggested that companies should learn how to balance economic interests and social responsibility to win the trust of the public.

"Authorities should tighten enforcement and give higher fines to enterprises with environmental violations," he added.