The hydrosphere of catchments, which are disturbed by mining, is formed under the influence of not only natural, but also, to a large extent, man-made factors over a long period, sometimes tens or even hundreds of years. After the cessation of production, the return of the mining territory to a state as close to natural as possible is possible, as world experience shows, in exceptional cases, provided that the process of reclamation and revitalization is planned at the design stage of mining. In old industrial areas, the selfhealing processes of the hydrosphere are of great importance, which determine the time during which the territory should be considered as an object of accumulated environmental damage. At present, the total removal of metal compounds by mine waters in the discharge zones at flooded copper-ore mines of the Sverdlovsk region amounts to hundreds (manganese, zinc) and even thousands of tons per year (iron). The duration of self-rehabilitation of the hydrosphere of mining areas at the post-operational stage, i.e. the duration of the period during which the content of the main polluting components (copper, zinc, iron, sulfate ion) is reduced to the maximum permissible or background values, is tens or even hundreds of years. During this time, in order to prevent pollution of the underground and surface hydrosphere, expensive measures are required to implement a system of purification of underground and surface waters of the old industrial territory. The research was carried out on the basis of observations of the chemical composition of water bodies in the territory of the abandoned Levikhinsky mine since the beginning of the 2000s.
Assessment and monitoring of soil and plant contamination with trace elements around Europe's largest copper ore tailings impoundment
