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Monitoring, prediction and assessment of mining impact on land environment![]()
Post-mining land-use selection by using a combination of PROMETHEE and SIR techniques
Sina Amirshenava & Morteza Osanloo
Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
ABSTRACT: Despite of positive impacts of mining activities on world economy, mining operations also caused unavoidably negative impacts on surrounding environment. Mine reclamation is one of the most important stages of the mining activities in line with the basic principles of sustainable development. Mine reclamation is a progressive activity, starts from the initial phase of mining and eventually leads to the preparation of all mined land areas such as pit, waste dump and tailing dam for Post-Mining Land-Use (PMLU). The PMLU can deeply affect on expenses and implementation of reclamation activities. In this study, different post-mining land-uses are evaluated in the Choghart iron ore mine which is located in Yazd province of Iran, by using a combination of PROMETHEE and A Superiority and Inferiority Ranking (SIR) techniques. According to the results, revegetaion with native species is the optimal PMLU solution for whole mined land of Choghart iron ore mine.
1 INTRODUCTION
Mining is one of the main activities for national economic development and provides the main materials for industrial production and socieconomic development (Bascetin, 2007; Yavuz and Altay, 2015). In contrast to these positive aspects, mining activities have some negative impacts that damages the environment. The most serious adverse environmental and social effects caused by surface mining activities are as follows (Dogan and Kahriman 2008; Yavuz and Altay, 2015):
• Nonrenewable resource depletion
• Destruction of natural landscape and habitats
• Health and safety problems
• Air and water pollution
• Contamination of soil
• Extinction of natural flora and fauna
• Abandoned mines and unreclaimed mine sites
Mine life is limited and it depends on the minable reserve and other factors such as economic, social and environmental factors that affect premature mine closure (Laurence, 2006; Maczkowiack et al, 2012). From one point of view, mining is in contradiction with the principles of sustainable development because of the negative impacts (Laurence, 2011). Mine reclamation is one of the most important stages of the mining activities in line with the basic principles of sustainable development and should be considered from the initial phase of mining (Narrei and Osanloo, 2011). Mine reclamation is a progressive activity, during which the pollutions left by mining activities are resolved as far as possible. Hence, the mine closure risk levels are reduced and it prepares the mined land such as pit, waste dump and tailing dam for PMLU. The PMLU is not necessarily the same as the premining land-use and it is possible that a better land-use be introduced according to the regional potentials and the community needs (Osanloo, 2008; Mborah et al, 2016). The key objectives of mine reclamation given in Table 1 (Dimitrijevic et al, 2014, Shenavar and Osanloo, 2016).
The Bow-tie diagram of mine closure risks is depicted in Figure 1 where the negative impacts of mine closure are top event (overall risk) and mine reclamation plan is considered as a measure to reduce the risk level.
PMLU can deeply affect on expenses and implementation of reclamation activities. The optimal PMLU selection is the basic step in the successful implementation of the reclamation plan. There are three main viewpoints about reclamation of mined land as follows (Osanloo, 2008):
Table 1. The key objectives of mine reclamation.
No. | Mine reclamation objective |
1 | Protect the health and safety of mine workers and residents |
2 | Creating a profitable and sustainable land use |
3 | Improve the region’s landscape |
4 | Reduce the negative impacts of mining activities |
5 | Social, economic and environmental stabilization |
Figure 1. Bow-tie diagram of mine closure risks (Amirshenava et al, 2016).
1. Agricultural land use anyway
2. Selection of an optimum land use option that is consistent with the existing conditions
3. Selection of an optimum land use option that improves the existing conditions
Considering the above perspectives, there are numerous land-uses for a mined land, but the most common PMLU include revegetaion with native species, agriculture (cropping, grazing and pasture), forestry, lake (for multiple purposes), recreation areas and wildlife habitat (Soltanmohammadi et al, 2008; Mborah et al, 2016).
PMLU selection is a multi-dimensional problem. MCDM methods are the best solution on this way (Zimmerman, 2016). Decision-making methods have widely been used in mining and have been applied by many researchers to PMLU selection. Bascetin (2007) used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to select an optimal PMLU for open pit coal mines. Soltanmohammadi et al (2008 and 2009) developed a mined land suitability analysis framework based on the MCDM methods, namely AHP, ELECTREE and PROMETEHEE. This framework contains 50 attributes for evaluation of eight possible groups of PMLU options. Narrei and Osanloo (2011) proposed a combined MCDM approach to evaluate the PMLU methods. They utilized entropy, weighted least square method and AHP techniques to obtain the relative weights of attributes. SAW, TOPSIS, Compromise programming and three aggregate method used for ranking the alternatives. Betrie et al (2013) chooses the optimal remediation option for Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) from mine wastes using AHP and PROMETHEE methods. Dimitrijevic et al (2014) determines the PMLU in Klenovnik open pit mine in the Kostolac coal basin using MCDM methods, PROMETHEE and ELECTRE. They recommended to include at least two MCDM techniques in order to improve the reliability of ranking. Yavuz and Altay (2015) used two different fuzzy decision-making methods, Yager’s and fuzzy AHP method to select the best-suited reclamation project. Zimerman (2016) describes an approach based on a GIS based decision-support systems to find the optimal reclamation method for abandoned mined-lands in the Appalachian region. Shenavar and Osanloo (2016) evaluates different reclamation alternatives using MCDM techniques, namely TOPSIS and ELECTRE for Sangan placer iron ore mine of Iran that operates by strip mining method.
In this study, different po...
