Geo-Environmental Problems of Open Pit Mining: Classification and Solutions

¹ Comenius University, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, 84248 Mlynska dolina Bratislava, Slovakia
² Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ South Kensington, London, United Kingdom
³ Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, Mining, Materials & Petroleum Engineering Department, P.O. Box 62000 – 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
⁴ Kuzbass State Technical University, Mezhdurechensk branch, 652881, Stroitelei Avenue, 36, Mezhdurechensk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: michaela.koscova@fmph.unibqa.sk

Abstract

Open mining development is the cheapest method, because it uses powerful production equipment, which allows a large amount of minerals to be excavated during a shift. Working conditions in open development are less dangerous for the health of workers, and a smaller number of supervisory personnel than in underground mining is required. In the process of open development, stripping works are first carried out, i.e. the removal of the empty rocks covering the deposit. Constantly growing requirements for energy sources, metal ores and building materials cause the need for intensive development of the mining industry. There is a rejection of significant areas for the development of minerals in an open and closed way. The causes of degradation are both the mining of minerals, as well as construction, the placement of production and consumption wastes in the natural environment. Changes in the components of the environment are observed as a result of direct or indirect influence of mining enterprises activities. This requires an analysis of the entire complex of geo-environmental problems of open mining and the identification of the most urgent ways to solve them.