Land rehabilitation as a part of environmental remediation is the process of returning the land in a given area to some degree of its former state, after some process (industry, natural disasters, etc.) has resulted in its damage. Many projects and developments will result in the land becoming degraded, for example mining, farming and forestry.
Modern mine rehabilitation aims to minimize and mitigate the environmental effects of modern mining, which may in the case of open pit mining involve movement of significant volumes of rock. Rehabilitation management is an ongoing process, often resulting in open pit mines being backfilled.
After mining finishes, the mine area must undergo rehabilitation.
Waste dumps are contoured to flatten them out, to further stabilize them against erosion.
If the ore contains sulfides it is usually covered with a layer of clay to prevent access of rain and oxygen from the air, which can oxidize the sulfides to produce sulfuric acid.
Landfills are covered with topsoil, and vegetation is planted to help consolidate the material.
Dumps are usually fenced off to prevent livestock denuding them of vegetation.
The open pit is then surrounded with a fence, to prevent access, and it generally eventually fills up with groundwater.
Tailings dams are left to evaporate, then covered with waste rock, clay if need be, and soil, which is planted to stabilize it.
For underground mines, rehabilitation is not always a significant problem or cost. This is because of the higher grade of the ore and lower volumes of waste rock and tailings. In some situations, stopes are backfilled with concrete slurry using waste, so that minimal waste is left at surface.
The removal of plant and infrastructure is not always part of a rehabilitation programme, as many old mine plants have cultural heritage and cultural value. Often in gold mines, rehabilitation is performed by scavenger operations which treat the soil within the plant area for spilled gold using modified placer mining gravity collection plants.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human interruption and action. Ecological restoration can reverse biodiversity loss, combat climate change and support local and global economies.
Mine reclamation is the process of modifying land that has been mined to ecologically functional or economically usable state. Although the process of mine reclamation occurs once mining is completed, the planning of mine reclamation activities occurs prior to a mine being permitted or started. Mine reclamation creates useful landscapes that meet a variety of goals ranging from the restoration of productive ecosystems to the creation of industrial and municipal resources.
Environmental effects of mining can occur at local, regional, and global scales through direct and indirect mining practices. Mining can cause in erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, or the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water by chemicals emitted from mining processes. These processes also affect the atmosphere through carbon emissions which contributes to climate change.
In the bauxite refining Bayer’s process, about 8 x 107 t/y of problematic residue is produced worldwide by extraction of alumina from bauxite earth. The bauxite refining industry requires strategies for rehabilitation of residue deposits to comply with leg ...
The study was performed in the Sahelian part of Burkina Faso. The country is subject to difficult climatic conditions, a strong demographic growth and a continuous decrease in soil fertility. The resulting degradation affects the processes which govern eco ...