TOWARD A RECLAMATION EFFORT ESTIMATION PROCEDURE FOR OPEN PIT MINES

The present imposes increasingly more environmental requirements on the mining industry, including CO2 emission standards. For another thing, technological complication of mining processes and the mineral quality degradation results in the closure of coal mines, which implies ecological recovery of the post-mining areas and their return in the economic activity in what follows. Experience proves that post-mining land reclamation is a very complex challenge as there is no universal methodical approach to reclamation planning. Reclamation of mining-disturbed land includes a set of geotechnical, engineering and other activities aimed at recovery of economic value of such land. The Federal Law on the Subsoil [1] dictates reclamation effort estimation to be carried out at the stage of mine planning and design. The main open pit mining parameters to be defined in this regard are: - the volume of an open pit void after mining; - the volume of overburden and waste rocks produced at an open pit and usable in backfill of this very open pit void. The present study focuses only on evaluation of overburden rock volume with regard to their disintegration and swelling which increase the rock volume.