Evaluation of a mixture of sewage sludge and mine waste in reclamation of degraded areas

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to evaluate the possibility of reclamation and management of mine dump material in degraded and devastated areas containing hazardous substances. In this study, we focused on the determination of changes in electrical conductivity (EC) coefficients and physicochemical parameters of mine soils for biological reclamation needs. The waste substrate material studied here showed significantly lower EC over time in tests, with a value of 6.54 dS m⁻¹ decreased to 0.54 dS m⁻¹. Increasing mine soil quality index corresponded with an increased concentration of exchangeable calcium ions. The cation ratio of soil structural stability indicator was positively correlated with increasing EC. Estimating the changes in physicochemical parameters of deposited reclamation material and its gradual transformation provides new knowledge that can be used for the management of mine waste for ecological purposes. In this investigation, we showed that technical activities connected with the management of opencast mining, which may involve removal of contamination from exploited areas, purification of exploited ground or pedogenesis process on waste dump, may be evaluated using the above indicators, artificial neural networks and principal component analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Biosolids
• industrial area
• mine soil quality index
• soil reclamation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.