Environmental Impact of Abandoned Mine Waste: a review



Yüklə 0,52 Mb.
səhifə1/14
tarix05.03.2018
ölçüsü0,52 Mb.
#30227
  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   ...   14



Environmental Impact of Abandoned Mine Waste:
A Review


Environmental Impact of Abandoned Mine Waste:
A Review


Claudio Bini
Author



Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

New York

Copyright © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.


All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher.
For permission to use material from this book please contact us:

Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175

Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com
NOTICE TO THE READER

The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works.


Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS.
Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-1-61324-837

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. †New York

Contents



Preface



Acknowledgements


The Author is indebted with collegues and cooperators that provided data for this review, and helped in preparing the final draft of the paper. Particular thanks are due to Dr. Mohammad Whasha, who revised the English form; Dr. Diana Zilioli and Dr. Silvia Fontana assisted in the field survey and provided laboratory analyses.

Prof. Jaume Bech, Chair of Soil Science, University of Barcelona (Spain), is warmly acknowledged for critical review and suggestions that contributed to improve an early draft of the paper.

Chapter 1

Introduction


Since the dawn of civilization and for long time, until the last decades of past century, mining activity, especially that concerning base (Cu, Fe, Pb, Zn) and precious metals (Au, Ag), as reported by George Bauer, (known as Agricola), in his book De re metallica (1556), represented a resource for human population, owing to its importance in many fields of interest: economic, cultural, technological (Figure 1).

By the second half of last century, however, mining activity, almost in European countries, declined until final closure, in the face of developing countries, owing to decreasing mineral resources, and to metal price drop. Since then, arose the problem of visible reminders and invisible inheritance of mine working (Davies, 1987), with reference to different aspects:


  • Environmental: soil contamination by metals, soil and water acidification; damage to vegetation;

  • Geomorphologic: landscape modification, geological hazard (erosion, flooding, landslides);

  • Sanitary: risk for human health (inhalation, ingestion, contact);

  • Casual/professional diseases: intoxication, lead poisoning, mercurialism.

Quite recently, however, abandoned mine sites have been discovered to constitute a chance, giving the opportunity to open Mine Parks and Museums; Archaeological Parks; protected natural areas, didactic-recreational itineraries, trekking areas, and other activities in open air. Yet, mine sites are actually natural scientific laboratories, where to explore natural processes involving rock-forming minerals, their transformation into soil-forming minerals, their interaction with organic matter, and fluxes from soil to plants. Furthermore, mine sites investigations have been addressed to soil remediation and environmental restoration, for example with application of phytoremediation technologies (Bini, 2009).

Figure 1. The front of the treatise De re metallica by G. Agricola (1556).

More recently, the European Mine Waste Directive (EC, 2006) has introduced new requirements for mine waste management, including that resulting from historical mining (Palumbo-Roe et al, 2009). The challenge in implementing the European Directive is to develop a pan-European risk-based inventory of abandoned mines, in order to select sites for remediation based on a common set of criteria. The characterisation of the mine waste and its transformations in the short and long term, forms the basis for a risk-based classification of abandoned mine sites (Servida et al., 2009).

In this paper, the effects of former mine activities, and the related environmental problems, with particular reference to Italy, are discussed, with the ultimate goal of investigating the fate of potentially toxic elements in the environment, and their impact on the conterminous land.



Yüklə 0,52 Mb.

Dostları ilə paylaş:
  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   ...   14




Verilənlər bazası müəlliflik hüququ ilə müdafiə olunur ©genderi.org 2024
rəhbərliyinə müraciət

    Ana səhifə