South Africa has a legacy of gold mining that has left the landscape polluted and unrehabilitated due to insufficient funds set aside during apartheid. This has led to acid mine drainage flooding mining basins and migrating pollution plumes containing uranium. To attract investment back to rehabilitate abandoned mine sites, an experimental process called rehabilitation mining removes gold-bearing reef and concurrently processes tailings to generate funds to offset historic environmental liabilities. An example at the 18 Winze Shaft site successfully rehabilitated surface reef through open-cast mining and backfilling. This shows that quantifying rehabilitation benefits can incentivize reprocessing brownfields if liabilities can be offset, with potential benefits for stabilization, jobs, and addressing future
7. MINING LEASE, RECLAMATION PLANNING AND SAFETY ZONE MANAGEMENT PLAN.RavindraSaksena
The "forest application" under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 also require clarity on "mining leases", acquire under the Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957; Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition & Development) Act, 1957 or Coal Areas Special Provisions Act, 2015.
The applicant is required to submit "lease covenant" of explain the absence of the document. Details of reconnaissance permit, prospecting licence, geological reports, geological or extractable reserves, opencast versus underground mining, phase-wise mining possible or not, land subsidence report in case of underground mines, mining plan - duly sanctioned by the Ministry of Coal of Indian Bureau of Mines or the State Government.
Reclamation Plan along with maps, phase-wise technical and biological reclamation of mined-out areas, ultimate mine pit, if any.
Safety Zone Management plan, Landscape Management Plan, etc. for consideration by the "Forest Appraisal Committee" (FAC) under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
Expert insights on Port Trends were presented at the 11th international Intermodal Conference in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in November 2013.
Presented by Siyabulela Mhlaluka, General Manager; Eastern Cape Region, for Transnet Port Terminals, this presentation offers critical insights into the Maritime Logistics industry.
7. MINING LEASE, RECLAMATION PLANNING AND SAFETY ZONE MANAGEMENT PLAN.RavindraSaksena
The "forest application" under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 also require clarity on "mining leases", acquire under the Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957; Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition & Development) Act, 1957 or Coal Areas Special Provisions Act, 2015.
The applicant is required to submit "lease covenant" of explain the absence of the document. Details of reconnaissance permit, prospecting licence, geological reports, geological or extractable reserves, opencast versus underground mining, phase-wise mining possible or not, land subsidence report in case of underground mines, mining plan - duly sanctioned by the Ministry of Coal of Indian Bureau of Mines or the State Government.
Reclamation Plan along with maps, phase-wise technical and biological reclamation of mined-out areas, ultimate mine pit, if any.
Safety Zone Management plan, Landscape Management Plan, etc. for consideration by the "Forest Appraisal Committee" (FAC) under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
Expert insights on Port Trends were presented at the 11th international Intermodal Conference in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in November 2013.
Presented by Siyabulela Mhlaluka, General Manager; Eastern Cape Region, for Transnet Port Terminals, this presentation offers critical insights into the Maritime Logistics industry.
The effects of Coal Mining on our environment and us humans and how it disrupt cycles on Earth biologically, geologically, and chemically. ( BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES ) Examples is the Semirara Island in the Philippines.
Designing blast free opencast coal mine a socio-eco-efficient production systemPawan Kumar Singh
Breaking of sandstone or other rocks overlying coal seams as well as coal seams in opencast coal mines
is essentially required for ease in excavation. The process of breaking rocks normally involves drilling and blasting.
Coal mining industry world over, for all its importance and contribution to the energy sector, is viewed with scepticism
for its impacts on environment and society. Apart from other processes, blasting of rocks with explosives is a major
contributor to originate several evils of coal mining like emission of noxious gases, high speed dust and fly rocks, heat,
and noise and ground vibrations. Moreover, what miners get after blasting is rock wastes, lumpy coal and sometimes
quality of coal also gets deteriorated due to mixing of rock wastes in blasted coal. Waste dumps also create long-term
environmental problems. This paper develops a new methodology to generate sustainable value in opencast coal mining
significantly increasing the inextricably-linked demand of production systems, by way of designing blast-free opencast
coal mines. Mechanical method of cutting and breaking the overlying rocks and coal seams as well can replace the
prevalent practice of blasting with explosives. An experiment of the designed method has been conducted using locally
made simple tools and a comparative study was made to examine the benefits of the design over the prevalent practice.
The method is found socio-eco-effective, economically viable and provides new business opportunity. There appears
substantial prospect for applicability of the design in coal mining industry, and it deserves a high potential to become a
brand CSR practice on the industry to benefit the society and improve sustainability.
COAL Union of Concerned ScientistsContents· How Coal Was.docxclarebernice
COAL: Union of Concerned Scientists
Contents
· How Coal Was Formed
· How Coal is Mined
· Where Our Coal Comes From
· How Coal is Transported and Processed
· How Coal is Burned
· Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Coal
· The Future of Coal
Many people think coal represents a bygone way of life and that America has moved on to safer and cleaner energy sources. On the contrary, coal provides roughly half the nation’s electricity—far more than any other source of power—and our coal use has nearly tripled since 1960. Our coal use will continue to expand if the power industry succeeds in building the many power plants it has proposed for construction.
Coal’s proponents claim coal power is cheap. While the direct price of electricity from the nation’s aging fleet of coal plants may be low, it doesn’t reflect the staggering and lasting costs of coal-related air and water pollution, mining accidents, permanently altered landscapes, and, most importantly, climate change. Even the newest proposed plants – which would cost far more than existing plants—would have major impacts on air and water quality, and almost the same mining and climate impacts as existing plants.
Technology is evolving that has the potential to substantially reduce coal’s contribution to global warming by capturing carbon emissions before they are emitted. This technology could become an important part of the battle against global warming, but it remains to be seen whether it will work at a commercial scale and at what cost.
Meanwhile, a 2009 UCS study found that we can dramatically reduce our coal use—and all the environmental and social costs associated with it—while saving energy consumers money with policies that aggressively promote energy efficiency and renewable power.
How Coal Was Formed
Coal was formed when dead plant matter submerged in swamp environments was subjected to geological forces of heat and pressure over hundreds of millions of years. As time went by, the plant matter evolved from moist and low-carbon peat, to coal, which is much higher in energy and carbon content. Coal itself has a wide variation in properties, so it is categorized into 4 ranks—lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite—in order of increasing carbon and energy content. Most of the coal burned in U.S. power plants is of the bituminous or subbituminous variety.
Figure 1: The Process of Coal Formation (Source: KGS)
Coal of all types can vary widely in the amount of sulfur contained. These differences are determined by the conditions under which the coal formed. Low-sulfur coal deposits formed in a freshwater environment, while those containing higher proportions of sulfur developed in brackish swamps or marine-influenced environments.[1] In the United States, the sulfur content of coal resources varies along geographic lines, with most of the eastern coal containing high levels of sulfur, and the younger western coal containing much less.
How Coal is Mined
In 2 ...
Why Mining is an Environmental Evil.pptxNeutralWeeb
A presentation on how mining proves to be hazardous for our natural as well as human resources. In this presentation we explain underground mining, open pit mining etc with various case studies supporting the data.
A non invasive sampling and remediation strategy was developed and implemented at shoreline contaminated
with spilt diesel. To treat the contamination, in a practical, cost-effective, and safe manner (to personnel
working on the stockpiles and their ship loading activity), a non-invasive sampling and
remediation strategy was designed and implemented since the location and nature of the impacted geology
(rock fill) and sediment, precluded conventional ex-situ and any in-situ treatment where drilling is
required. A bioremediation process using surfactant, and added N & P and increased aeration, increased
the degradation rate allowing the site owner to meet their regulatory obligations. Petroleum hydrocarbons
decreased from saturation concentrations to less than detectable amounts at the completion of
treatment.
The effects of Coal Mining on our environment and us humans and how it disrupt cycles on Earth biologically, geologically, and chemically. ( BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES ) Examples is the Semirara Island in the Philippines.
Designing blast free opencast coal mine a socio-eco-efficient production systemPawan Kumar Singh
Breaking of sandstone or other rocks overlying coal seams as well as coal seams in opencast coal mines
is essentially required for ease in excavation. The process of breaking rocks normally involves drilling and blasting.
Coal mining industry world over, for all its importance and contribution to the energy sector, is viewed with scepticism
for its impacts on environment and society. Apart from other processes, blasting of rocks with explosives is a major
contributor to originate several evils of coal mining like emission of noxious gases, high speed dust and fly rocks, heat,
and noise and ground vibrations. Moreover, what miners get after blasting is rock wastes, lumpy coal and sometimes
quality of coal also gets deteriorated due to mixing of rock wastes in blasted coal. Waste dumps also create long-term
environmental problems. This paper develops a new methodology to generate sustainable value in opencast coal mining
significantly increasing the inextricably-linked demand of production systems, by way of designing blast-free opencast
coal mines. Mechanical method of cutting and breaking the overlying rocks and coal seams as well can replace the
prevalent practice of blasting with explosives. An experiment of the designed method has been conducted using locally
made simple tools and a comparative study was made to examine the benefits of the design over the prevalent practice.
The method is found socio-eco-effective, economically viable and provides new business opportunity. There appears
substantial prospect for applicability of the design in coal mining industry, and it deserves a high potential to become a
brand CSR practice on the industry to benefit the society and improve sustainability.
COAL Union of Concerned ScientistsContents· How Coal Was.docxclarebernice
COAL: Union of Concerned Scientists
Contents
· How Coal Was Formed
· How Coal is Mined
· Where Our Coal Comes From
· How Coal is Transported and Processed
· How Coal is Burned
· Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Coal
· The Future of Coal
Many people think coal represents a bygone way of life and that America has moved on to safer and cleaner energy sources. On the contrary, coal provides roughly half the nation’s electricity—far more than any other source of power—and our coal use has nearly tripled since 1960. Our coal use will continue to expand if the power industry succeeds in building the many power plants it has proposed for construction.
Coal’s proponents claim coal power is cheap. While the direct price of electricity from the nation’s aging fleet of coal plants may be low, it doesn’t reflect the staggering and lasting costs of coal-related air and water pollution, mining accidents, permanently altered landscapes, and, most importantly, climate change. Even the newest proposed plants – which would cost far more than existing plants—would have major impacts on air and water quality, and almost the same mining and climate impacts as existing plants.
Technology is evolving that has the potential to substantially reduce coal’s contribution to global warming by capturing carbon emissions before they are emitted. This technology could become an important part of the battle against global warming, but it remains to be seen whether it will work at a commercial scale and at what cost.
Meanwhile, a 2009 UCS study found that we can dramatically reduce our coal use—and all the environmental and social costs associated with it—while saving energy consumers money with policies that aggressively promote energy efficiency and renewable power.
How Coal Was Formed
Coal was formed when dead plant matter submerged in swamp environments was subjected to geological forces of heat and pressure over hundreds of millions of years. As time went by, the plant matter evolved from moist and low-carbon peat, to coal, which is much higher in energy and carbon content. Coal itself has a wide variation in properties, so it is categorized into 4 ranks—lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite—in order of increasing carbon and energy content. Most of the coal burned in U.S. power plants is of the bituminous or subbituminous variety.
Figure 1: The Process of Coal Formation (Source: KGS)
Coal of all types can vary widely in the amount of sulfur contained. These differences are determined by the conditions under which the coal formed. Low-sulfur coal deposits formed in a freshwater environment, while those containing higher proportions of sulfur developed in brackish swamps or marine-influenced environments.[1] In the United States, the sulfur content of coal resources varies along geographic lines, with most of the eastern coal containing high levels of sulfur, and the younger western coal containing much less.
How Coal is Mined
In 2 ...
Why Mining is an Environmental Evil.pptxNeutralWeeb
A presentation on how mining proves to be hazardous for our natural as well as human resources. In this presentation we explain underground mining, open pit mining etc with various case studies supporting the data.
A non invasive sampling and remediation strategy was developed and implemented at shoreline contaminated
with spilt diesel. To treat the contamination, in a practical, cost-effective, and safe manner (to personnel
working on the stockpiles and their ship loading activity), a non-invasive sampling and
remediation strategy was designed and implemented since the location and nature of the impacted geology
(rock fill) and sediment, precluded conventional ex-situ and any in-situ treatment where drilling is
required. A bioremediation process using surfactant, and added N & P and increased aeration, increased
the degradation rate allowing the site owner to meet their regulatory obligations. Petroleum hydrocarbons
decreased from saturation concentrations to less than detectable amounts at the completion of
treatment.
Ensuring harmonious relations among investors and communities in an emerging ...
GUEST ARTICLE
1. GUEST ARTICLE: Rehabilitation mining in the goldfields of
South Africa
South Africa is a mature mining economy, once the largest producer of gold in the world (Hart, 2013). The majority of the gold-
bearing ore body is found in a complex reef package that generally strikes to surface on an east-west plane. There are four
hydrologically defined mining basins in the Witwatersrand Goldfields – Eastern, Central, Western and Far Western.
The only deep level mining still taking place is in the Far Western Basin. In all other basins the escalating cost of labour and energy
has distressed the mining companies and dewatering has become prohibitive (Turton, 2015a). This has flooded the other three basins
with decant to surface of highly acidic mine water, occurring in 2002 at 18 Winze Shaft on the Tweelopies Spruit, close to the
continental watershed divide that separates the Limpopo and Orange River Basins.
2. The highly acidic decant has left a complex uranium plume (Coetzee et al., 2006), including the sediment of the Tweelopies Spruit,
one of the many tributaries of the Limpopo River. A larger plume of uranium is found on the opposite side of the watershed divide,
migrating down the Wonderfontein Spruit, a tributary of the Mooi that flows into the Vaal and ultimately the Orange River (Wade et
al., 2002; Winde, 2010), posing a risk to the Zuurbekom karstic well-field that provides some of the water to the city of Johannesburg
(Hartnady et al., 2012).
The Stark Reality of the Legacy of Apartheid in the Mining Sector
The gold mining industry is now deeply distressed, with disinvestment taking place as capital migrates out of the country. This has
left behind large swathes of land that are mining-impacted but also unrehabilitated. The legacy of Apartheid is such that insufficient
money was set aside to fund rehabilitation post-closure, so the country faces a stark reality as the natural dynamics of disinvestment
drive marginal companies into insolvency. There are three main consequences of this (Turton, 2015b) if left unmanaged:
Large quantities of gold bearing reef are still in place in the form of pillars protecting shaft collars, railway lines, highways and buildings
on surface. These are being attacked by illegal miners working in armed criminal gangs. This active mining is creating geotechnical
instability on surface, with sufficient ore to fund illegal operations for a century into the future.
The surface striking reef extends through the city of Johannesburg from the town of Springs in the east to the town of Randfontein in the
west, a distance of over 100 km. Each of these reef bands typically has a holing to surface every 100 metres apart as part of the mining
that occurred a century ago. These holings give easy access to the reef, a fact that is exploited by the illegal miners (see Photo 1 & 2).
The generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) from the three flooded mining basins is 136 Ml/d at steady state, with peak flows of 229 Ml/d.
The pH is typically between 2 and 4, with uranium as a factor in the Western Basin (Winde, 2010) decant given the co-existence of gold
and other heavy metals in that specific reef package.
3.
4. The fundamental problem is that the regulatory framework under Apartheid did not make adequate provision for post-closure
rehabilitation. There is now insufficient resource left to retroactively fund rehabilitation. The pivotal question is thus how to attract
capital back into Brownfield sites in such a way that rehabilitation can be funded in the absence of adequate financial resources that
should have been set aside over more than a century of mining. The response to this is an experimental process known as
Rehabilitation Mining, also referred to as Closure Mining.
The logic being that rehabilitation generates a quantifiable benefit accruing to society, so this can be brought onto balance sheet and
used to offset century-old environmental liabilities that would render the company insolvent if not dealt with in this manner.
More importantly, if uranium can systematically be removed from source, then the cumulative benefit arising from the reduced
movement of pollution plumes can also be calculated and used as a multiplier to make a viable investment case for Brownfield sites
with massive environmental liabilities. This is done by concurrently reprocessing surface tailings that contain both uranium and gold
along with hard rock found in surface striking reef (see Figure 1).
5.
6. Closure Mining as a Regulatory Mechanism for Brownfield Site Rehabilitation
An example of this is found in the rehabilitation of a surface striking reef adjacent to 18 Winze Shaft (the only active AMD decant
point). This was done by means of an open-cast operation known as PSG 4, which removed all surface striking reef to a depth of
about 40 metres. The pit was backfilled with waste rock and covered with top soil as shown in the sequence of Google Earth images
below.
7.
8. Lessons Learned
There have been many lessons learned from this rehabilitation process. The most significant being that rehabilitation of mine impacted
landscapes can be incentivised by offsetting the historic liability held on the books of the company against the value of the land being
released for higher economic use post-closure. This is not yet recognized in the South African regulatory environment, but
engagement between all stakeholders (including investors and regulators) is encouraging.
The PSG 4 case proves that if regulatory reform can accurately quantify the benefit of rehabilitation, and allow it to be offset against
historic liabilities in an open and transparent way, then capital can be attracted back into the Brownfield mining sites of the
Witwatersrand Goldfields. This has major implications for the rehabilitation of the uranium pollution (Coetzee, 1995) that will confront
the city of Johannesburg if marginal mining companies become insolvent and the environmental liability is effectively nationalised
(Turton, 2015b).
It also has significant implications for the stabilization of land, including highways, railway lines and buildings, under which shallow
stoping by illegal miners is actively taking place in a haphazard manner. More importantly this has the potential to create jobs in a
sector currently shedding jobs by the thousands as major mining companies divest their toxic assets, encumbered by a century of
unfinanced environmental liability.
This is a work in progress, so the final outcome cannot be accurately predicted at the time of writing.
9. References
Coetzee, H. 1995. Radioactivity and the Leakage of Radioactive Waste Associated with Witwatersrand Gold and Uranium Mining. In
Merkel, B. J., Hurst S., Löhnert E.P. & Struckmeier W. (Eds.) Proceedings Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology 1995, Freiberg,
Germany: GeoCongress 1. – 583 S.; Köln (von Loga; ISBN 3-87361-256-9).
Coetzee, H., Winde, F. & Wade, P.W. 2006. An Assessment of Sources, Pathways, Mechanisms and Risks of Current and Potential
Future Pollution of Water and Sediments in Gold-Mining Areas of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment. WRC Report No. 1214/1/06.
Pretoria: Water Research Commission.
Hart, M.H. 2013. Gold: The Race for the World’s Most Seductive Metal. London: Simon & Schuster.
Hartnady, C., Mlisa, A., Turton, A.R., Blake, D., Goyns, A., Simpson, G., von Scherenberg, L., Khudzai, A., Burgher, K. &
Seyler, H. 2012. Research Project to Investigate Acid Water Plumes, Decants and Intersects with Rand Water’s Potable Water
Pipelines: Phase 1. Report No. 810-04/01/2012. Johannesburg: Rand Water.
Turton, A.R. 2015(a). Untying the Gordian Knot: Unintended Consequences of Environmental and Water Policy for the Gold Mining
Industry in South Africa. In Water International (Special issue on mining).
Turton, A.R. 2015(b). When Gold Mining Ends – an Environmental Catastrophe for Johannesburg? In New South Africa Review (5).
Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Wade, P.W., Woodbourne, S., Morris, W.M., Vos, P. & Jarvis, N.W. 2002. Tier 1 Risk Assessment of Selected Radionuclides in
Sediments of the Mooi River Catchment. WRC Project No. K5/1095. Pretoria: Water Research Commission.
Winde, F. 2010. Uranium Pollution of the Wonderfontein Spruit, 1997-2008. Part 2: Uranium in Water – Concentrations, Loads and
Associated Risk. In Water SA, Vol.36: No.3; 257-278.
AUTHOR INFO:
Professor Anthony Turton
Centre for Environmental Management
University of Free State