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Introduction
Published in Karra Ram Chandar, B. C. Gayana, P. Shubhananda Rao, Mine Waste Utilization, 2022
Overburden dumps change the natural land topography, affect the drainage system and prevent natural succession of plant growth (Bradshaw and Chadwick, 1980), resulting in acute problems of soil erosion and environmental pollution (Singh et al., 1994; Singh et al., 1996). The impact of mining waste can have lasting environmental and socio-economic consequences and can be extremely difficult and costly to address through remedial measures. Mining overburden has to be properly managed to ensure the long-term stability of disposal facilities and to prevent or minimize any water and soil pollution arising from acid or alkaline drainage and leaching of heavy metals (Zheng et al., 2016). Dump materials are generally loose, fine particles become highly prone to blowing by wind. These get spread over the surrounding fertile land, plants; disturb their natural quality and growth of fresh leaves (Arvind Kumar et al., 2011).
Coal
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Energy Security for The 21st Century, 2021
Coal-fired plants also use a lot of water for cooling the steam prior to being reused. This process creates additional air and water pollution. Large amounts of cooling water are evaporated from the heat exchangers, and together with the exhaust gasses change the local environment significantly. Some of this water is dumped from time to time in the environment too, which creates additional contamination and other problems in the local areas. Solid pollution is also a problem during coal production and use, because the process demands movement of large amounts of coal, which generate a lot of dust and solid waste. Removal of large amounts of soil from surface mines, the overburden, is part of the mining process that is accompanied with the generation of a lot of dust and soil waste. Depending on the nature, attitude, and grade of the deposits, often much more waste soil is removed from the surface mine than the total quantity of ore mined during the entire life of the mine.
A micro-computer simulator for mountaintop emoval mine planning and design
Published in Y.J. Wang, R. Larry Grayson, Richard L. Sanford, Use of Computers in the Coal Industry, 2020
Contour mining is the dominate method of surface mining in Central Appalachia. When the coal seam is flat lying and the depth of overburden does not exceed 100 to 150 feet over the extent of the seam, mountaintop removal becomes an attractive alternative to conventional contour mining. In mountaintop removal the entire mountaintop overlying the coal seam is removed in a series of lifts. Stripping of overburden constitutes the most complex and costly aspect of surface mining, and for this reason deserves detailed planning.
An automated production targeting goal programming framework for oil sands mine planning considering organic rich solids
Published in Mining Technology, 2020
Ahlam Maremi, Eugene Ben-Awuah, Yashar Pourrahimian
Ore with bitumen grade of 7 wt% or more, overburden (OB), interburden (IB) with bitumen grade less than 7 wt%, reclamation material (RM) and waste are the types of materials that needs to be planned in oil sands mining operations. Overburden and interburden (OI) could be used for dyke construction with further classification. Interburden should have 50 wt% fines content if it is to be used for dyke construction otherwise, it is classified as waste. Overburden is used either for roads or dyke construction if it meets the fines requirement. The tailings that results from processing the ore is segregated into tailings coarse sands (TCS) used for dyke construction and tailings slurry that is deposited in the External Tailings Facility (ETF) and in-pit tailings containment areas. The in-pit tailings storage areas are generated by dividing the final pit area into pushbacks based on the footprint required by tailings dam engineers to set up in-pit tailings facility cells. Reclamation material is stockpiled for land reclamation as per the closure plan for the mine.
Effect of environmental factors on mechanical properties and damage characteristics of mine overburden used in subgrade
Published in International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 2022
Penghui Wen, Chaohui Wang, Xuan Gao, Ming Chen, Zhi Chai
The mining industry is an essential foundation to promote the rapid development of the global economy. In the mining process of coal and metal ore, the mine overburden is undoubtedly one of the main by-products. There are mountains of mine overburden in most mining areas, which occupies a lot of land and affects the surrounding environment (Amrani et al. 2019, Das et al. 2020). It is a meaningful way to realise the utilisation of mine overburden in constructing large-scale civil infrastructures such as highways and railways (Xiao et al. 2012, Lidelow et al. 2017). The utilisation of mine overburden reduces the consumption of natural construction materials and alleviates the problems of land occupancy and waste materials governance.
Particulate matter pollution in opencast coal mining areas: a threat to human health and environment
Published in International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment, 2018
Sneha Gautam, Aditya Kumar Patra, Satya Prakash Sahu, Michael Hitch
The first step in an opencast coal mining operation is to remove the topsoil from the area that is to be mined. After the removal, it is stored in a location away from the mine area to be used for reclamation of the mine area later. Once the topsoil is removed the overburden, which is generally a waste material overlying the coal, is exposed. The overburden normally consists of rock and must be loosened or broken by drilling and blasting the material. This is done by creating a pattern of blast holes. This operation is therefore the first stage of PM generation for an opencast coal mine [62]. Ghose and Majee [61] calculated that 660 kg d−1 dust is generated due to overburden removal in Indian coal mines.