Sustainable mineral resources management: from regional mineral resources exploration to spatial contamination risk assessment of mining

Wide-spread environmental contamination associated with historic mining in Europe has triggered social responses to improve related environmental legislation, the environmental assessment and management methods for the mining industry. Mining has some unique features such as natural background contamination associated with mineral deposits, industrial activities and contamination in the three-dimensional subsurface space, problem of long-term remediation after mine closure, problem of secondary contaminated areas around mine sites, land use conflicts and abandoned mines. These problems require special tools to address the complexity of the environmental problems of mining-related contamination. The objective of this paper is to show how regional mineral resources mapping has developed into the spatial contamination risk assessment of mining and how geological knowledge can be transferred to environmental assessment of mines. The paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the spatial mine inventory, hazard, impact and risk assessment and ranking methods developed by national and international efforts in Europe. It is concluded that geological knowledge on mineral resources exploration is essential and should be used for the environmental contamination assessment of mines. Also, sufficient methodological experience, knowledge and documented results are available, but harmonisation of these methods is still required for the efficient spatial environmental assessment of mine contamination.

[1]  W. Hader,et al.  Geotoxicology of multiple sclerosis: the Henribourg, Saskatchewan, cluster focus. II. The soil. , 1988, The Science of the total environment.

[2]  E. Carranza,et al.  Environmental impact of metal mining on catchment drainage in the historic mining area of Recsk-Lahoca mines, Hungary , 2003 .

[3]  Theo Vermeire,et al.  Risk assessment of chemicals : an introduction , 2007 .

[4]  A. G. Darnley.  Some notes on the importance of airborne gamma-ray spectrometry in International Geochemical Mapping , 1993 .

[5]  P. O'Connor,et al.  FOREGS GEOCHEMICAL MAPPING FIELD MANUAL , 1998 .

[6]  G. Dahlquist,et al.  Evidence of a Relationship Between Childhood-Onset Type I Diabetes and Low Groundwater Concentration of Zinc , 1996, Diabetes Care.

[7]  Maciej Nowicki,et al.  Environment in Poland: Issues and Solutions , 1993 .

[8]  I. Thornton.  Applied Environmental Geochemistry , 1985 .

[9]  Tang Jianan.  The Atlas of Endemic Diseases and Their Environments in the People's Republic of China , 1990 .

[10]  R. Piispanen.  Geochemical interpretation of cancer maps of Finland , 1989, Environmental geochemistry and health.

[11]  E. Rybicka.  Environmental impact of mining and smelting industries in Poland , 1996 .

[12]  R. Hedin,et al.  Mine Water: Hydrology, Pollution, Remediation , 2002 .

[13]  G. S. Plumlee,et al.  The Environmental Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits , 1997 .

[14]  M. Bidovec,et al.  Geochemical Atlas of Europe, Part 1, Background Information, Methodology and Maps , 2005 .

[15]  Christopher Wood,et al.  Environmental Impact Assessment: A Comparative Review , 1995 .

[16]  I. Thornton.  Environmental geochemistry and health in the 1990s: a global perspective , 1993 .

[17]  I. Thornton,et al.  Geochemistry and health in the United Kingdom. , 1979, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[18]  Theo Vermeire,et al.  Risk assessment of chemicals , 2021, Bioanalytical Tools in Water Quality Assessment.

[19]  R. Wanty,et al.  Mobilization and attenuation of metals downstream from a base-metal mining site in the Mátra Mountains, northeastern Hungary , 1998 .

[20]  L. Ódor,et al.  Low-density geochemical mapping in Hungary , 1997 .

[21]  Dennis P. Cox,et al.  Mineral deposit models , 1986 .