Environmental Evaluation for Mining Areas Based on the Ground Truth from Field Surveys and Satellite Image Analysis

Abstract

In the study area of eastern Serbia, which includes the Bor and Maidenpek mining areas of the Republic of Serbia, a research of environmental evaluation of the study area was carried out by means of field survey for environment and satellite image analysis in order to establish and improve methods for assessing the environmental impact of mining areas by satellite image analysis. The results of this study showed that it was possible to efficiently determine the distribution of overburdens and tailings in a wide area based on the distribution of points having jarosite spectra, and that it was possible to distinguish waste rocks such as overburdens and tailings with high environmental impact from those waste rocks with relatively low environmental impact based on the mineral assemblage of the waste rocks estimated from satellite image analysis. In addition, if topographical data before and after mining development are obtained from the satellite image analysis, the volume of the waste rocks can be estimated, and the quantitative estimation of the amount of toxic elements dissolved from the waste rocks could be possible by combining the experimental data on the extraction of toxic elements from the waste rocks. In addition, the predicted hazardous area (Type I), where high concentration of Cu may be leached from the waste rocks revealed by the surface survey, corresponds to the area where waste rocks such as overburdens and tailings is distributed around the mine and the area where waste rocks such as tailing is distributed along the river downstream of the mine as estimated by the satellite image analysis. These results indicate that it is possible to predict the environmental impact in advance of the survey in the mining area, and to predict the environmental impact in the mining area where it is not possible to go directly to the survey and to consider guidelines for countermeasures.

Keywords

• environmental evaluation
• satellite image
• mine pollution
• acid mine drainage
• tailing
• overburden