Mine Water as Geothermal Resource in Nowa Ruda Region (SW Poland)

The Lower Silesian Coal Basin in south-western Poland was a region of intensive coal mining until the late 1990s. After mining was stopped and the mines were closed, the underground workings were flooded. This created an underground reservoir of waters that can be economically managed to supply energy, using heat pumps, to the town of Nowa Ruda. The article analyses the energy potential of these waters. It was shown that open loop with reinjection system based on mine shafts can provide 10 GWh of geothermal energy while reducing emissions from 4.27 tCO2 to 0.22 tCO2. In addition, 2.09 GWh can be extracted from water flowing out of mine shafts via adits. As a final result, this will lead to improve air quality as well as increase the environmental value of the region. These results can act as a reference tool for local government, specialists in energy policy at the local scale. They are also the basis for future work aimed at acquiring external funds to carry out detailed studies of the condition of mine shafts, geothermal profiling of water in sunken shafts and test pumping, which will make it possible to determine the real quantities of water to be used.

Supplemental Material: A waning Saxothuringian Ocean evidenced in the Famennian tephra-bearing siliceous succession of the Bardo Unit (Central Sudetes, SW Poland)

Supplemental Material S1: Conodont alteration index discussion; Supplemental Material S2: Radioisotopic data; Supplemental Material S3: Geochemical analytical and correlation dataset; Supplemental Material S4: Additional geochemical figures.

Supplemental Material: A waning Saxothuringian Ocean evidenced in the Famennian tephra-bearing siliceous succession of the Bardo Unit (Central Sudetes, SW Poland)

Supplemental Material S1: Conodont alteration index discussion; Supplemental Material S2: Radioisotopic data; Supplemental Material S3: Geochemical analytical and correlation dataset; Supplemental Material S4: Additional geochemical figures.

Postdiagenetic Bacterial Transformation of Nickel and Vanadyl Sedimentary Porphyrins of Organic-Rich Shale Rock (Fore-Sudetic Monocline, Poland)

Nickel and vanadyl porphyrins belong to the so-called fossil geo- or sedimentary porphyrins. They occur in different types of organic matter-rich sediments but mostly occur in crude oils and their source rocks, oil shales, coals, and oil sands. In this study, we aimed to understand the process of bacterial transformation of geoporphyrins occurring in the subsurface shale rock (Fore-Sudetic Monocline, SW Poland). We studied these transformations in rock samples directly obtained from the field; in rock samples treated with bacterial strain isolated from shale rock (strain LM27) in the laboratory; and using synthetic nickel and vanadyl porphyrins treated with LM27. Our results demonstrate the following: (i) cleavage and/or degradation of aliphatic and aromatic substituents of porphyrins; (ii) degradation of porphyrin (tetrapyrrole) ring; (iii) formation of organic compounds containing 1, 2, or 3 pyrrole rings; (iv) formation of nickel- or vanadium-containing organic compounds; and (v) mobilization of nickel and vanadium. Our results also showed that the described bacterial processes change the composition and content of geoporphyrins, composition of extractable organic matter, as well as nickel and vanadium content in shale rock.

Modern Solution for Fast and Accurate Inventorization of Open-Pit Mines by the Active Remote Sensing Technique—Case Study of Mikoszów Granite Mine (Lower Silesia, SW Poland)

Mining industry faces new technological and economic challenges which need to be overcome in order to raise it to a new technological level in accordance with the ideas of Industry 4.0. Mining companies are searching for new possibilities of optimizing and automating processes, as well as for using digital technology and modern computer software to aid technological processes. Every stage of deposit management requires mining engineers, geologists, surveyors, and environment protection specialists who are involved in acquiring, storing, processing, and sharing data related to the parameters describing the deposit, its exploitation and the environment. These data include inter alia: geometries of the deposit, of the excavations, of the overburden and of the mined mineral, borders of the support pillars and of the buffer zones, mining advancements with respect to the set borders, effects of mining activities on the ground surface, documentation of landslide hazards and of the impact of mining operations on the selected elements of the environment. Therefore, over the life cycle of a deposit, modern digital technological solutions should be implemented in order to automate the processes of acquiring, sharing, processing and analyzing data related to deposit management. In accordance with this idea, the article describes the results of a measurement experiment performed in the Mikoszów open-pit granite mine (Lower Silesia, SW Poland) with the use of mobile LiDAR systems. The technology combines active sensors with automatic and global navigation system synchronized on a mobile platform in order to generate an accurate and precise geospatial 3D cloud of points.