Fachartikel 06_2021

The European Commission has been striving to initiate an EU-wide coal phase-out since the end of 2017 in the form of the initiative “Coal Regions in Transition”. The aim of the activities is to provide structural support to the EU’s coal regions during their move – the “transition” – away from coal. The initiative also represents a pioneering project on ...

The sustainable management of geological resources presents a challenge for environmental and geomonitoring actions with all the diverse tasks and assignments involved, such as water management and the monitoring of environmental changes. Today’s geo- and environmental monitoring processes involve the observation of many different factors and use satellite-supported optical remote detection with multispectral or hyperspectral sensors and radar remote sensing. ...

In 2011, the NRW mining authority initiated the systematic analysis and evaluation of surface fracture relevant shafts within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s area of responsibility as part of risk management regarding potential hazards of abandoned mines. The measures that have been taken subsequently aim to, amongst others, prevent physical injuries or substantial damage to property through surface fracturing. As ...

Residues from the mining industry can be separated into waste rock, tailings and stockpiles. These different materials are usually stored separately from one another within the mine site. Where this has not been done – which is sometimes the case in older mines – the subsequent sorting and processing operation will most probably be very expensive, which often makes further ...

As part of the Eco Mining Concepts project, a German-Chilean network for more sustainable mining, the German-Chilean Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Chile) organised a webinar on the topic of “The Hidden Potential of Contaminated Sites: Reprocessing Tailings for Use as a Secondary Source of Raw Materials”. The event featured presentations on Chile’s potential in this field, current challenges ...

Abandoned contaminated mining sites such as heaps or slag usually cause major environmental problems, which are or have been rehabilitated in Germany by the government with a large amount of taxes. However, they usually also contain significant amounts of urgently needed strategic raw materials and consist mainly of mineral components that can be used in the ceramics or construction materials ...

Recently, the recycling of metallurgical residues, e. g., electric arc furnace slag, has gained increasing importance. The potential of metallurgical slags often lies, in addition to the metallic value content, among other things in their use as aggregates for the construction industry, e. g., cement industry. The development of this potential requires a systematic mineralogical and micromechanical and physical characterization of the ...