Ecological safety and reclamation of disturbed lands in the mineral resource complex: from damage assessment to ecosystem restoration

Abstract

The digest brings together publications from Journal of Mining Institute spanning different years, devoted to environmental safety and the reclamation of disturbed lands in the mineral resource sector. The materials are arranged to follow the logic of the full cycle of technogenic impact: from the theoretical foundations of sustainable development and monitoring of anthropogenic load, through the mining and technical stage of reclamation and spoil heap management, bioremediation of oil-contaminated soils, and restoration of sludge ponds, tailings dumps, and disturbed landscapes, to the use of unconventional fertilizers, sewage sludge, and organic waste for the formation of artificial soil substrates. Both fundamental issues – economic assessment of reclamation, engineering-geological stability of technogenic masses, threshold concentrations of pollutants – and applied technologies are considered: protective coatings and bioactive foams for stabilizing dusting surfaces, bioremediation agents for oil degradation, phytoremediation combined with electrical treatment, and formulations of technogenic soils. The regional specificity of Kuzbass, the Kola Subarctic, the Urals, and the Northwest of Russia is reflected. The publication will be useful to researchers, environmental engineers, and specialists in the mining and oil refining industries.