Measures to reduce the negative impact of the mining complex on the environment and their prevention

Mine owners and operators need to carefully consider the land and use of selected resources and preserve the ecology and culture of a significant area. Mining operators need to reduce the environmental impact of habitat loss and pollution during all stages of mine development. Mining operators need to ensure transparency in the payment of income from the company to the government and report progress towards implementing responsible practices.

Open cast mining

Open cast mining

When developing quarries in order to reduce the effects of dust, which is a dangerous atmospheric pollutant, the observance of dust protection means, the introduction of sawmill systems, and the use of protective sawmill systems are effective.

According to the code of subsoil users are obliged to bring land plots violated during the use of subsoil into a condition suitable for their further use in public production. This task may to be resolved both by returning them to the area of ​​use that was inherent in these areas before using the subsoil through reclamation, and by providing them with a new area of ​​public use (afforestation, creation of artificial lakes).

With the growing number of chemical and mining enterprises and the formation of a developed mining complex, the negative regional changes in the state of the environment have become more and more noticeable. Violation of the natural state of the land during mining is mainly associated with the extraction of coal, ore and non-metallic minerals, and the construction of pipelines. Significant areas are occupied by overburden dumps, waste rock heaps and tailings of concentration plants. The total area of ​​land disturbed by mining operations in Ukraine is more than 2.8 thousand km 2, of which about 1.3 thousand km 2 are in operation and 1.5 thousand km 2 are subject to restoration.

Mining has other impacts such as there must be a port

Reclamation is not necessarily the return of land in their original condition. Indeed, in a number of cases, for example, at a quarry site, this is impossible. In a broad sense, reclamation is bringing land plots into a state that allows them to be used later in agriculture, for forest planting, for construction, and for creating recreation areas. In some cases, we are talking about creating artificial, but harmonious landscapes that complement the natural ones.

The most common type of earth surface disturbance is dumps. their anthropogenic forms are very diverse: conical, comb-like, flat, plate-like. Another type of disturbance is the deflections and dips of the earth's surface, formed above the mine fields, as well as the actual foundation pits. Among the latter, a crescent-shaped, with gentle slopes, circus bogeys, trapezoidal, dry, and flooded by ground and surface waters stand out. The most important stages of restoration of disturbed lands are mining and biological reclamation.

Mining reclamation involves extinguishing waste heaps, forming flat dumps, smoothing slopes, creating terraces, back filling depressions. Planned surfaces are covered by clay rock, any soil-forming rock (wood, sandy loam) and soil. The soil cover rocks are cut down and stored in special dumps even before the start of mining operations.

Mining areas must also be made for reclamation

Biological reclamation includes measures to restore soils or create conditions on rock dumps that can ensure their fertility. To this end, the most resistant plant species are selected and sustainable biocenoses are created. Arable lands, hay-fields, pastures (agricultural reclamation) are created on lands freed from mining, forest stands are being planted (forestry reclamation). Sometimes spent deep quarries use reservoirs, ponds (water reclamation).

Biological reclamation of lands disturbed in the process of manganese ore mining is carried out in the region, in the process of iron ore mining in the Crimean region, coal and non-metallic minerals in the Donbass. Mining operations daily violate land area, measured in hectares. However, after the minerals are selected, the quarry is filled with oversized rocks and, after planning the surface, it is covered with chernozem stored in special dumps.

The use of waste land for growing crops or introducing industrial fishing is associated with a significant risk - because the land is often contaminated with products from previous mining and chemical activities. Therefore, the best way is the testament of the worked land with the simultaneous implementation of remediation, which results in the cleaning of soils and water from pollutants. Remediation is the cleansing of a territory from dangerous pollutants or the containment of their spread with the help of natural or artificial microorganisms or plants.

Reclamation process for the mining area

 Known examples of the use of remediation for cleaning from oil pollution, heavy metals, ecotoxicants, organic compounds, organometallic compounds, etc. As a result of the implementation of an integrated approach - the Reserve of Wasted Lands with the simultaneous implementation of remediation, it is possible after a certain period of time to realize the natural self-healing of disturbed lands and returning them to their natural state. Examples of successful restoration of worked lands are the creation of an artificial reservoir and recreation zone on the basis of the the creation of an artificial reservoir and landscape park on the basis of the Podorozhnyansky sulfur quarry.

The mine association "Pavlogradugol" is carrying out work on the restoration of disturbed lands, using for backfilling areas of the earth's surface that have subsided, the mine rock formed as a result of the enterprise. After that, the territory is covered with a fertile layer and vegetation is planted on it. In 2009, 15.1 hectares of land was reclaimed and transferred to the land reserve. The cost of work amounted to 4300000. UAH. In addition,

Pavlogradugol. protects forests and agricultural lands from flooding with the help of drainage systems. The waters of swamps, lakes, ponds, streams and rivers are diverted from the mining allotment. For the diversion of rivers, a drainage canal is built along the contour of the mining allotment, and for drainage of water from other water bodies, canals with a drain are built in the direction of lower sections of the relief.

Drainage from the mining area is also very much needed

The drainage system of the field should provide normal conditions for mining, capital and operational work in the quarry. Drainage measures include fencing the career from the influx of surface and groundwater by conducting special workings and organizing drainage. The method of draining the quarry is selected depending on the water-physical properties of the rocks, the number of placement, the thickness of the aquifers. Distinguish between surface, underground and combined method of drainage.

Water pumped out of the quarry should be discharged to the nearest watercourse or catchment and should not again enter the quarry through cracks, dips or permeable rocks. Water logging of the territory adjacent to the quarry should not occur. Measures are also envisaged for the conservation of groundwater resources, excluding pollution and mineralization of water sources and reservoirs of recreation areas. During the development of the field, the drainage system of the quarry changes, new contours of water-reducing wells, underground workings, catchments and the like are created.