Air Quality Benefits From Implementing Best Available Techniques in Copper Mining and Smelting Complex Bor (Serbia)

Instrumental neutron activation analysis is used to determine a content of 47 elements (Na, Mg, Al, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Co, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, I, Ba, Cs, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta, W, Au, Hg, Th, and U) in mosses (Homolothecium sp., Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw., and Brachythecium mildeanum (Schimp.) Schimp.) and lichen (Cladonia fimbriata (L.) Fr.) collected in three locations in Eastern Serbia over years 2006-2010. Concentrations of six elements (Zr, Nd, Gd, Tm, Yb, and Lu) in mosses in Serbia are measured for the first time. For other elements, the obtained concentrations fall within the ranges reported for mosses and lichens in Europe, but no declining trend in concentrations of V, Cd, Cr, Zn, Ni, Fe, and Cu, that has been described in the literature, can be inferred from our results. Factor analysis shows that terrigenous and industrial components are the highest contributing factors to the elemental composition and that the most polluted measurement site is in the vicinity of a copper mining and smelting complex.

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INDUSTRY-DRIVEN AND CIVIL SOCIETY-DRIVEN STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS IN THE IRON MINING AND SMELTING COMPLEX OF CORUMBÁ, BRAZIL

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management ◽

10.1142/s1464333214500100 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 16 (02) ◽

pp. 1450010 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

ANA CECI MOTA ◽

EMILIO LÈBRE LA ROVERE ◽

ALBERTO FONSECA

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Large Scale ◽

Performance Criteria ◽

Environmental Assessments ◽

Mato Grosso ◽

Iron Mining ◽

Society Committee ◽

Mining And Smelting ◽

Smelting Complex

Historical records of socio-environmental impacts related to large-scale iron ore development in Brazil are driving different planning approaches in the burgeoning iron mining and smelting complex of Corumbá, located at the border of the Pantanal ecosystem in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Among the most relevant efforts are two strategic environmental assessments (SEA): one was led by a mining company and the other by a civil society committee. This paper assesses to what extent these SEAs can contribute to the mitigation of negative socio-environmental impacts of the Corumbá Complex. It also evaluates if the SEA methodologies meet a number of SEA Performance Criteria. The analyses, which were based on literature reviews and content analysis of the SEA documents, reveal that the two SEAs represent an important effort to incorporate environmental variables into more strategic levels of the Pantanal region's planning. Nonetheless, both SEAs have serious limitations, given that they are not formally nested in governmental policies, plans and programmes.

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An Unpublished Manuscript Geologica Japonica by Von Siebold: Geology, Mineralogy, and Copper in the Context of Dutch Colonial Science and the Introduction of Western Geo-sciences to Japan

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine ◽

10.1163/26669323-04001004 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 45-80

Author(s):

Togo Tsukahara

Keyword(s):

Copper Mining ◽

Unpublished Manuscript ◽

Copper Refinery ◽

Close Study ◽

Hybrid Character ◽

Materials Used ◽

Scientific Collections ◽

Von Siebold ◽

Mining And Smelting ◽

Dutch Colonial

In this article, I will discuss one important aspect of historical encounters between Western colonial scientists and Japanese nature. In order to do so, I will shed new light on how geo-sciences became an object of scientific research of Japan, in the framework of Dutch colonial sciences. I will also show that Western interests in Japanese geo-sciences were primarily stimulated by economic motivations, and that, at the same time, it accompanied the process of the introduction of modern Western sciences into Japan. It is well-known that Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) studied Japanese natural history widely, and wrote two standard works, Flora Japonica and Fauna Japonica. This paper examines a newly found unpublished manuscript Geologica Japonica by von Siebold, which discusses Japanese geology and mineralogy, and reports on copper mining and smelting. Mineralogical and geological collections have also been discovered in museums at Leiden, the Netherlands. These collections are now identified as the research materials used in the preparation of this manuscript, and found to be the first systematic European geo-scientific collections from Japan. The collection of rocks and minerals from Japan has been proved as mostly collected and identified by Heinrich Burger (1806-1858), a pharmacist and assistant to von Siebold. Burger classified the collection using two nomenclature systems, those of A. G. Werner and R. Hauy. We further point out that the Dutch were interested in the useful natural resources of their trading partner, carrying out a survey of coal mines in Japan, and the trial of tea transplantation from Japan to Java. In my research on the newly found manuscripts and collections of geology and mineralogy, I clarify that von Siebold and Burger intensively investigated Japanese copper mining and smelting. They reported their visit to the Sumitomo copper refinery at Osaka, and Burger wrote an article on Japanese copper in the journal of the Batavian Society for Arts and Sciences. In conclusion, based on close study of newly examined manuscripts and detailed identification of geological collections, a network of interest in Japan’s geology and mineralogy by Dutch colonial scientist is illustrated, and its hybrid character is demonstrated against the background of Dutch- Japan cultural exchange.

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