Magnesium factories, the pillar industry in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, will no longer operate to the detriment of the area's environment thanks to a one-year campaign against magnesium pollution adopted by local authorities, Friday's China Daily reported.

The effort, begun last month, involves the harnessing of more than 2,000 magnesium kilns spread throughout the southern part of the province and focuses on the cities of Haicheng, Dashiqiao and Xiuyan counties where magnesite resources abound.

A total of 817 kilns have been transformed by installing environmental protection facilities to reduce smoke and powder pollution. Others are undergoing transformation or have been closed down, according to the provincial Magnesite Resources Protection Office.

Further efforts will be taken next year to deal with the remaining kilns in hopes of restoring the area's blue skies and fresh air, which local residents have long desired.

Millions of residents in the southern area of Liaoning have been afflicted with heavy magnesium pollution in the last 10 years. Nevertheless, their rising incomes are the result of the rich magnesite resources that have boosted Liaoning's economic progress.

The region is renowned for its 2.6 billion tons of high-quality magnesite reserves, which make up around 85 per cent of the country's total and 20 per cent of the world's total. The annual magnesium output for the region's 517 magnesium factories topped 6 million tons.

However, owing to outdated technology used in the extraction, production and processing of magnesium, as well as a lack of environmental protection measures, these factories have become major contributors to the area's increasingly serious pollution, reducing crops yields and damaging farmlands.

A report from the provincial environmental protection bureau indicates that the emission of harmful gas and powder from these magnesium plants accounts for more than 70 per cent of the area's total air pollution.

Local residents, saying it is urgent to curb magnesium pollution, have responded positively to the harnessing project.

"Villagers are excited when they see that these magnesium kilns have been equipped with environmental protection facilities and will no longer damage their farmlands," said Dong Zhenwei, a villager from Wangjiabao Village in the city of Haicheng. "Before, we even had to close the windows in the summer because of pollution."

Magnesium factories have also seen the benefits from transforming their kilns.

Zhang Dong, a magnesium plant worker, said his factory environment was previously filled with dust and powder but has greatly improved since the installation of the environmental protection equipment.

"We have realized that we can never seek profits only by destroying the ecological environment we depend on," said Liu Delu, manager of Xiyang Refractory Co Ltd, a large magnesium enterprise in Haicheng.