Abstract
Coal, salt and ore mining areas and areas where other raw materials are extracted, such as quarries, pits of unconsolidated rock and harvested peatland, are anthropogenically strongly disturbed terrains which, apart from the ore mining sites, do not indicate contamination with toxic substances. Nevertheless, in relation to the pedogenically developed soil and the vegetation cover, they exhibit large-scale complete removal in the case of opencast mining, quarries, open pits and peatland. The formerly used areas must be rehabilitated, which can be arranged in different ways. Opencast lignite coal areas are either reclaimed for agriculture, forestry or recreational purposes or are restored in conjunction with the establishment of nature reserves. In this chapter, technical applications for ensuring reclamation and measures to initiate new vegetation are explained. The development of natural succession and treatment of controlled restoration are introduced in association with the natural reserves. The creation of mining lakes is also described. By way of analogy, rehabilitation measures in quarries and pits of unconsolidated rock, which mainly focus on natural succession of vegetation or implementation of woodland, are taken into consideration. Regarding ore mining areas which produce large-scale tailing ponds, special attention is paid to the heavy metal contamination and the opportunities to treat it. Furthermore, the restoration of differently harvested peatland types (bogs, fens) which is aimed at the regeneration of this landscape type is introduced in detail. The long-term processes of rewetting, re-naturation and regeneration are considered in different climates. Apart from the mining and raw material exploitation, which influences large areas, underground mining, which is associated with coal, salt and ore mining heaps and their environmental impacts, is discussed. The rehabilitation approaches for the mining heaps consisting of material with extreme physico-chemical properties form an important topic of this chapter. In this context, solutions for subsided mining terrains resulting from underground mining are considered as well.
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Meuser, H. (2013). Rehabilitation of Soils in Mining and Raw Material Extraction Areas. In: Soil Remediation and Rehabilitation. Environmental Pollution, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5751-6_3
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