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Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023
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Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023

A special issue of Mining (ISSN 2673-6489).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 10790

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mostafa Benzaazoua

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Geology and Sustainable Mining Institute (GSMI), University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P), Lot 660 Hay Moulay Rachid, Ben Guerir 43150, Morocco
Interests: inorganic industrial and mining wastes; environmental characterization; treatment and recycling of industrial and mining wastes; waste reprocessing; integrated management of mining wastes; geometallurgy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yassine Ait-Khouia

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Geology & Sustainable Mining Institute (GSMI), Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir 43150, Morocco
Interests: mineral processing; geometallurgy; environmental desulphurization; integrated mine waste management; critical raw materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce our upcoming Special Issue, entitled “Feature paper in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023”. This publication will feature a collection of outstanding papers, including comprehensive reviews and original research articles, in the fields of mining engineering, sustainability and environment. Researchers are invited to submit cutting-edge developments and novel knowledge related to sustainable mining engineering, with a particular focus on innovative solutions to the challenges that the mining industry is currently facing.

We welcome submissions from all researchers (from various backgrounds), especially younger scholars, who are interested in exploring innovative practices and solutions to the challenges facing the mining industry of the future.

We encourage papers on a wide range of topics related to sustainability in mining, including but not limited to:

  • Sustainable mining practices and development;
  • Mining Innovation;
  • Green mining technologies;
  • Carbon footprint reduction in mining;
  • Sustainable mineral resource management;
  • Geometallurgical/geoenvironmental modeling;
  • Eco-friendly mineral processing;
  • Digitalization and automation: mine 4.0;
  • Life cycle assessment in mining;
  • Circular economy in mining;
  • Mining environmental impact assessments;
  • Mine waste management;
  • Mine water management;
  • Mine closure planning;
  • Climate change adaptation in mining.

Join us in advancing sustainable mining practices for a better mine in the future! Submit your work today without delay.

Authors will be the Editorial Board members or those invited by the editorial office and the Editor-in-Chief. The papers would be published, free of charge, in Open Access after peer review.

Prof. Dr. Mostafa Benzaazoua
Dr. Yassine Ait-khouia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Mining is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable mining practices and development
  • eco-friendly mineral processing
  • innovation
  • digitalization and automation: mine 4.0
  • green technologies
  • life cycle assessment
  • circular economy
  • geometallurgy/geoenvironment modeling
  • environmental impact assessments
  • sustainable resource management
  • mine waste management
  • mine water management
  • mine closure planning
  • climate change adaptation
  • carbon footprint reduction

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

16 pages, 4612 KiB  
Article
Development of Decorative Mortars with Pigments from Acid Mine Drainage: Analysis of Physical and Mechanical Properties
by Richard Thomas Lermen, Gabriela de Oliveira Orlando and Rodrigo de Almeida Silva
Mining 2023, 3(4), 696-711; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining3040038 - 08 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 973
Abstract
The construction industry is recognized for its high consumption of natural resources, resulting in significant environmental impacts. Given this reality, it is essential to seek new methods and solutions that minimize the impact of this activity on the environment. An innovative approach consists [...] Read more.
The construction industry is recognized for its high consumption of natural resources, resulting in significant environmental impacts. Given this reality, it is essential to seek new methods and solutions that minimize the impact of this activity on the environment. An innovative approach consists of using pigments derived from acid mine drainage (AMD) as a sustainable alternative in the production of mortar for decorative façade cladding. In this context, the main objective of this paper was to evaluate the physical/mechanical properties of decorative mortars developed by partially replacing natural sand with pigment from acid mine drainage. Initially, the pigment (yellow) was produced, characterized, and compared with a commercial pigment. Sequentially, decorative mortars were developed with different pigment concentrations (0%, 2%, 4%, and 6%). The mortars were subjected to compressive strength, flexural tensile strength, shrinkage, loss of mass, and colorimetry tests. The results showed that compressive strength, flexural tensile strength, weight loss, and dimensional variation were significantly affected by the partial addition of pigment to replace natural aggregate. In other words, there was a decrease in strength and an increase in mass loss and expansion of the mortars. However, the main factor influencing these variables was the greater amount of water added in the higher substitution cases. The addition of water was necessary to keep the consistency constant. A possible solution to maintain the same amount of water and avoid negative effects on the mortar properties would be to use additives in the mortar formulation in future work. Therefore, this research contributes to the search for more sustainable solutions in civil construction, exploring the use of pigments from AMD as a viable alternative to reduce the environmental impacts associated with this industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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35 pages, 8490 KiB  
Article
Effectiveness of Protein and Polysaccharide Biopolymers as Dust Suppressants on Mine Soils: Large-Scale Field Trials
by Johannes Lukas Sieger, Bernd Georg Lottermoser and Justus Freer
Mining 2023, 3(3), 428-462; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining3030026 - 18 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 992
Abstract
Recent laboratory studies have shown that biopolymers have the potential to act as dust suppressants on barren mine soils. However, there is a lack of field trials investigating the effectiveness of biopolymer treatments under real field conditions on a large scale. This study [...] Read more.
Recent laboratory studies have shown that biopolymers have the potential to act as dust suppressants on barren mine soils. However, there is a lack of field trials investigating the effectiveness of biopolymer treatments under real field conditions on a large scale. This study performed field trials to examine the potential of three biopolymers—corn starch (CS), xanthan gum (XG), and fava bean protein concentrate (FBPC)—as dust suppressants. The field trials started in August 2022 with spraying of low doses of the selected biopolymers on trial areas of an overburden dump at the Inden open-cast lignite mine, Germany. The field trials were conducted over 45 days. They included repeated measurements of dust emissions from soil plots exposed to different airflows generated by an electric blower, visual inspections, and penetrometer tests. The results showed that all biopolymer treatments effectively suppressed dust emissions in the short term up to 8 days after application. Total suspended particle emissions measured on the biopolymer-treated trial plots were significantly reduced and ranged from 0.05 to 0.27 mg/m3 compared to the untreated control (4.5 to 39.2 mg/m3). The visual inspections and penetrometer tests supported these results. After day 8, rainfall-induced leaching of the biopolymers resulted in the rapid degradation of the treatments’ effectiveness. The results suggest that the treatments would have lasted longer under dry conditions. Thus, the field trials provide practical evidence that biopolymers can effectively mitigate dust emissions on exposed, undisturbed mine soils in the short term, making them a bio-based alternative to traditional dust suppressants, such as chloride salts or petroleum-based products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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19 pages, 4537 KiB  
Article
Modelling of a Post-Mining Catchment for Future Simulations
by Devika Nair, K. G. Evans and Sean Bellairs
Mining 2023, 3(3), 409-427; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining3030025 - 16 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1519
Abstract
Landform evolution modelling (LEM) provides an avenue for simulating how a landscape may evolve over extended time periods of thousands of years. CAESAR-Lisflood LEM which includes a hydrologic model (TOPMODEL) and a hydraulic model (Lisflood) can be used to assess the proposed final [...] Read more.
Landform evolution modelling (LEM) provides an avenue for simulating how a landscape may evolve over extended time periods of thousands of years. CAESAR-Lisflood LEM which includes a hydrologic model (TOPMODEL) and a hydraulic model (Lisflood) can be used to assess the proposed final landform morphology of a mine site by simulating how the mine landform and the landscape would evolve over a 1000-year period. The accuracy of future simulations depends on the calibration and validation of the model to past and present events. Calibration and validation of the model involve finding a combination of parameters of the model which when applied and simulated gives model outputs similar to those observed for the real site scenario for corresponding input data. Calibrating the sediment output of the CAESAR-Lisflood model at the catchment level and using it for studying the equilibrium conditions of the landform is an area that has yet to be explored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to calibrate the CAESAR-Lisflood model and then validate it. To achieve this, the model was run for a rainfall event with a set of parameters, plus discharge and sediment data for the input point of the catchment, to analyse how similar the model output would behave when compared with the discharge and sediment data for the output point of the catchment. The model parameters were then adjusted until the model closely approximated the real site values of the catchment. The model was then validated by running it for a different set of events and checking that the model gave similar results to the real site values. The outcomes demonstrated that while the model can be calibrated to a greater extent for hydrology (discharge output) throughout the year, sediment output calibration may be slightly improved via the ability to change parameters to take into account the seasonal vegetation growth during the start and end of the wet season. This study is important for designing and testing post-mining rehabilitated landscape systems that assess hydrology and sediment movement in seasonal biomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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20 pages, 6671 KiB  
Article
A Case Study of Incorporating Variable Recovery and Specific Energy in Long-Term Open Pit Mining
by Jônatas Franco Campos da Mata, Alizeibek Saleimen Nader and Douglas Batista Mazzinghy
Mining 2023, 3(2), 367-386; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining3020022 - 16 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1304
Abstract
Integrated Optimization can find optimized solutions for a project to define open pit and mine scheduling with greater reliability. This work aims to demonstrate how the insertion of geometallurgical variables can significantly change the financial return of a project. Two geometallurgical variables are [...] Read more.
Integrated Optimization can find optimized solutions for a project to define open pit and mine scheduling with greater reliability. This work aims to demonstrate how the insertion of geometallurgical variables can significantly change the financial return of a project. Two geometallurgical variables are considered in mine planning simulations. Specific energy corresponds to the energy consumed in the comminution of the ore, and process recovery measures the percentage of metal incorporated into the product. Three scenarios were developed considering an iron ore deposit. In the Base Case (BC) scenario, the recovery was fixed, and the specific energy of comminution was not considered. GeoMet1 considers the variable recovery varying for each block. GeoMet2 considered both recovery and specific energy as variables varying for each block. GeoMet1 and GeoMet2 presented Net Present Value (NPV), respectively, as 3.68% and 13.57% lower than the BC. This overestimation of the BC results can be viewed as an optimistic case of mine planning that is very common in the mining industry. These results show that the use of specific energy and recovery variables is fundamental to obtaining more reliable mine planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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Review

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29 pages, 3484 KiB  
Review
A Review of In Situ Leaching (ISL) for Uranium Mining
by Guihe Li and Jia Yao
Mining 2024, 4(1), 120-148; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining4010009 - 02 Mar 2024
Viewed by 905
Abstract
Uranium, a cornerstone for nuclear energy, facilitates a clean and efficient energy conversion. In the era of global clean energy initiatives, uranium resources have emerged as a vital component for achieving sustainability and clean power. To fulfill the escalating demand for clean energy, [...] Read more.
Uranium, a cornerstone for nuclear energy, facilitates a clean and efficient energy conversion. In the era of global clean energy initiatives, uranium resources have emerged as a vital component for achieving sustainability and clean power. To fulfill the escalating demand for clean energy, continual advancements in uranium mining technologies are imperative. Currently, established uranium mining methods encompass open-pit mining, underground mining, and in situ leaching (ISL). Notably, in situ leaching stands out due to its environmental friendliness, efficient extraction, and cost-effectiveness. Moreover, it unlocks the potential of extracting uranium from previously challenging low-grade sandstone-hosted deposits, presenting novel opportunities for uranium mining. This comprehensive review systematically classifies and analyzes various in situ leaching techniques, exploring their core principles, suitability, technological advancements, and practical implementations. Building on this foundation, it identifies the challenges faced by in situ leaching and proposes future improvement strategies. This study offers valuable insights into the sustainable advancement of in situ leaching technologies in uranium mining, propelling scientific research and practical applications in the field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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16 pages, 23030 KiB  
Review
Advancements in Mine Closure and Ecological Reclamation: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Overview (1980–2023)
by Hamza Zine, Abdelhak El Mansour, Rachid Hakkou, Eleni G. Papazoglou and Mostafa Benzaazoua
Mining 2023, 3(4), 798-813; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining3040044 - 16 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1047
Abstract
Faced with the ongoing energy transition and the escalating fragility of our natural ecosystems, ecological reclamation emerges as an imperative necessity. Investigation within this field has been in progress since the early 20th century. To gauge the advancements in this realm, elucidate the [...] Read more.
Faced with the ongoing energy transition and the escalating fragility of our natural ecosystems, ecological reclamation emerges as an imperative necessity. Investigation within this field has been in progress since the early 20th century. To gauge the advancements in this realm, elucidate the evolving research trends, and emphasize pertinent metrics, it is essential to perform a comprehensive overview of the subject. Undertaking this bibliometric study is necessary to clarify research’s current state of play, grasp research hotspots, showcase outstanding researchers, and predict future research trends. In this work, 40,386 articles were retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and bibliometric analysis was carried out using the Biblioshiny R package (Version 4.0.0, K-Synth Srl, Naples, Italy), and Python (PyCharm Community Edition 2023.2.1)o understand the progress in this research field from 1980 to 2023. The findings reveal a consistent upward trend in the publication rate within the field of mine closure and ecological reclamation over this timeframe, culminating in 6705 articles by 2022. Notably, authors and institutions from China have taken the lead, followed closely by those from the USA and Canada in terms of article publications. This prominence can be attributed to these countries’ rapid economic growth and energetic transition, which has frequently come at the expense of environmental quality, and a rise in reclamation challenges. In this sense, the circular economy has risen in force recently, which highlights the withdrawal of the old linear economy. In coming research on mine closure and ecological reclamation, multi-scale ecological reclamation research should be reinforced, and social and economic concerns should be integrated. This study pinpointed current research hotspots and forecasted potential future research areas, providing a scientific baseline for future studies in mine closure and ecological reclamation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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16 pages, 1417 KiB  
Review
A Review of Dimension Stone Extraction Methods
by Karandagoda Gamage Anjana Udara Samarakoon, Samarasuriya Patabendige Chaminda, Chulantha Lakmal Jayawardena, Anjula Buddhika Nayomi Dassanayake, Yasanga Suduweli Kondage and Kannangara Appuhamilage Tharindu Theekshana Kannangara
Mining 2023, 3(3), 516-531; https://doi.org/10.3390/mining3030029 - 22 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2861
Abstract
This review paper examines extraction methods in the dimension stone industry. Traditional techniques, like thermal shock, hammer and chisel, and plug and feather, were used historically. However, advancements in technology have led to the adoption of mechanized methods. Diamond wire cutting is a [...] Read more.
This review paper examines extraction methods in the dimension stone industry. Traditional techniques, like thermal shock, hammer and chisel, and plug and feather, were used historically. However, advancements in technology have led to the adoption of mechanized methods. Diamond wire cutting is a highly efficient technique that reduces waste and ensures quality. Challenges like high costs and wire breakage remain. Circular diamond saws and frame sawing are explored as alternative methods. Stone characteristics influence machinery selection and researchers have studied the impact on extraction efficiency. Controlled blasting with explosives shows promise and requires further exploration and optimization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Sustainable Mining Engineering 2023)
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