Mercury as an indicator of geological and environmental risks in the development of various mineral raw materials

Mercury is a highly toxic pollutant of the environment, and a quantitative assessment of its emission and migration in the technogenic transformation of mining regions is vital. The presented study focuses on the features of mercury concentration in the natural mineral raw materials, commercial products and processing waste by the example of mercury-containing copper pyrite deposits in the Urals. Mercury (its quantitative indicators) is used as a reliable element-tracer of the evolution of the technogenic system: mineral raw materials – subsurface use wastes – environmental components – food products – the human body. Such integrated approach is recommended for optimizing the forecasting, assessment and management of geological and environmental risks, as well as for the geological and environmental monitoring of the modern mining engineering system.

A Review about the Sustainability of Pit Lakes as a Rehabilitation Factor after Mine Closure

At the end of surface mining activities, the remnant voids are of great concern regarding rehabilitating the final open pits. The investigation of the sustainability of pit lakes in post-mining regions constitutes a challenging research problem. This paper aims to highlight the effectiveness of pit lakes as a rehabilitation factor. In this framework, several cases worldwide and in Greece were examined in detail and evaluated. The results indicate that mine pit lakes must be evaluated as dynamic systems, natural or artificial, which demand rational mine water management to ensure their sustainability. Specifically in Greece, it is of great importance during the transition to the post-lignite era.

The Impact of Medieval Mining upon the Environment of the Central Balkans

The paper examines the impact of medieval mining upon the environment, based upon the present state of the historiographical, archaeological, and geological research. By the middle of the 13th century a massive increase in the exploitation of precious metals is noted, inducing the appearance of settlements in the vicinity of the locations of extraction and production of ores. The problems of water and air pollution occurred, raised by the operation of smelteries inside these settlements or in their immediate vicinity. Although the presence of slag indicates certain metallurgical activity, it is hard to discern the precise purpose and the period of their activity without archaeological excavations. The increase in demand for fuel may have induced deforestation, so the rights to exploit forests were legally regulated. The scope of wood exploitation in the region of Šumadija has been judged by the research estimating the presence of potassium in the previously registered old slag deposits. It is hard to discern the general health status of the inhabitants of the mining regions, since a small portion of skeletal material is examined, not including the one from the most important mining center of Novo Brdo. The anthropological analysis indicates the problems caused by hard physical activity and poor hygiene. The present knowledge on the influence of heavy metals indicates the impact of past mining practices upon the environment and human health. Decomposition of sulphides in the discard deposits and old slag, as well as the leak of acid waters from old shafts, still affect the present pollution of water and soil in the vicinity of mining centres such as Rudnik and Srebrenica. These same reasons may have presented dangers for the population living there during the period of 15th to 17th century. The future archaeological research, with the inclusion of other disciplines, will bring more detailed understanding of the relationship between people and their environment in the mining regions of the Medieval Serbia.

Ecologico-economic Substantiation of Environmental Remediation of Rock Disposal Dump at the Coal-mining Regions of Siberia and the Far East

Based on the remote sensing data, the aggregated information has been provided on rock disposal dumps of the surface and abandoned coal deposits in the mining regions of Siberia and the Far East. High-resolution satellite images have helped to square the acreage of slope grade horizontal alignments of rock disposal dumps, as well as the yielding capacity of plant ecosystems on the dump slopes. The rock dumps architecture has been proposed to ensure the ecological balance generation at the appropriate pace. The economic indicators of the remedial ecology package work at the rock dumps have been provided.

GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RISKS AND ASSESSMENT OF ECOLOGICAL-GEOMORPHOLOGICAL SITUATIONS OF MINING REGIONS OF ARID ZONE OF KAZAKHSTAN

The importance of the impact of emerging ecologic-geomorphological situations in areas of active mining development of Kazakhstan on the life of the population is difficult to overestimate in conditions of a dry climate, water scarcity and the use of outdated technologies for the extraction of solid minerals. This article examines the ecologic-geomorphological situations of mining areas of arid platform-denudation plains of Kazakhstan and gives their characteristics, which is based on an analysis of the leading natural and anthropogenically caused geodynamic processes, their spatial coverage, ratios and comparative assessment as an indicator of geomorphological risk within selected morphogenetic types of relief.