Current issue 4/2024

Editorial

With the decline in the extraction of mineral raw materials in Germany, the focus is increasingly on the resulting tasks of the post-mining period. Post-mining is understood to mean the totality of all processes and tasks after the end of raw material extraction. In addition to the securing and remediation of mining legacies, this includes the long-term and sustainable management of deposits and the areas used. Other topics include risk management, the renaturation and recultivation of areas formerly used for mining, and groundwater and mine water management.

At this point, it is important to me to distinguish between the terms “post-mining” and “old mining”. Old mining usually refers to the terrain, mine buildings and subsequent landscapes of a past mining operation. However, old mining can also refer to historical or pre-industrial mining. In the following, I would like to use the term “post-mining” to refer to mining that took place a long time ago, and “post-mining” as a generic term for everything that follows active mining.

Post-mining is not only a technical challenge, but also has an economic and, increasingly, a social significance. In the Mining Report Glückauf, we have therefore been providing a platform for the topic of post-mining for years with the section of the same name. Due to the importance of the topic and the diversity of its manifestations, we are dedicating the entire issue to it this time and, as an exception, dispensing with the corresponding section.

We have not, however, dispensed with our “ISSA Mining” section, which, using the example of the Paasbach in Hattingen, deals with the risk and safety management for surveying work in former underground mine workings that are difficult to access.

As part of the EU research project WINTER, a web-based management tool for the structural change of coal-mining regions is being developed for the Ruhr area, among other places. The Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site is an outstanding example of successful structural change in the Ruhr area. In the former ore mining district in Wenden in the Sauerland region, insufficiently secured mine workings near the surface also pose a risk to public safety and therefore need to be remediated, as is the case in the former coal mining district of Stockheim in Bavaria. The example of sinkholes in Stolberg shows that not all incidents of damage in former mining districts are due to mining activities. In the Upper Harz region, the Clausthal University of Technology is conducting research into concepts for the subsequent use of the extensive infrastructure of old mining sites. The final article in this issue is an overview of the activities of the Working Group “Post-Mining”.

With my best regards