Lepidolite deposits are rare-metal deposits in which lepidolite is the principal industrial mineral. Owing to thin overburden and widespread open-pit mining, their exploitation supports raw material supply for the new energy industry but also continuously disturbs mining ecosystems, thereby threatening regional ecological security. Under the combined effects of fragile natural conditions and human-induced mining disturbance, traditional fixed-weight evaluation methods have difficulty identifying stage-wise changes and localized high-risk characteristics of ecological security in lithium mining areas. Taking the lithium mining area of Huaqiao Township, Yichun, as a case study, this study constructed an ecological-security evaluation system based on the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response–Management (DPSIRM) framework and introduced variable weight (VW) theory to develop a penalty-dominated state variable weight model. This model enabled the dynamic adjustment of indicator weights across years and evaluation units, while the geographic detector was used to identify the main driving factors. Results showed that (1) from 2010 to 2024, ecological security exhibited a stage-wise pattern of initial improvement followed by degradation, and low-security areas first contracted and then expanded outward; (2) vegetation coverage was a key driving factor, while interactions between any two factors were stronger than the effect of a single factor, indicating that cumulative multi-stressor effects strongly shaped spatial differentiation; and (3) compared with the constant weight (CW) method, the VW method produced finer stratification within the severely degraded tail at the Shixiawo mining site across the four assessment years, demonstrating applicability at a representative mining site in this Huaqiao case study. These findings provide a scientific basis for ecological assessment, restoration, and coordinated resource management in lithium mining areas.
Yin et al. (2026) studied this question.