Identified the hydrochemical and the sulfur cycle process in subsidence area of Pingyu mining area using multi-isotopes combined with hydrochemistry methods

Groundwater serves as an important water source for residents in and around mining areas.To achieve scientific planning and efficient utilization of water resources in mining areas,it is essential to figure out the chemical formation process and the ground water sulfur cycle that transpire after the coal mining activities.Based on studies of hydrochemistry and D,^(18)O-H_(2)O,^(34)S-SO_(4)isotopes,this study applied principal component analysis,ion ratio and other methods in its attempts to reveal the hydrogeochemical action and sulfur cycle in the subsidence area of Pingyu mining area.The study discovered that,in the studied area,precipitation provides the major supply of groundwater and the main water chemistry effects are dominated by oxidation dissolution of sulfide minerals as well as the dissolution of carbonate and silicate rocks.The sulfate in groundwater primarily originates from oxidation and dissolution of sulfide minerals in coal-bearing strata and human activities.The mixed sulfate formed by the oxidation of sulfide minerals and by human activities continuously recharges the groundwater,promoting the dissolution of carbonate rock and silicate rock in the process.

Spatial distribution and ecological risk of heavy metals and their source apportionment in soils from a typical mining area, Inner Mongolia, China

Determining the distributions and sources of heavy metals in soils and assessing ecological risks are fundamental tasks in the control and management of pollution in mining areas.In this study,we selected 244 sampling sites around a typical lead(Pb)and zinc(Zn)mining area in eastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China and measured the content of six heavy metals,including cuprum(Cu),Zn,Pb,arsenic(As),cadmium(Cd),and chromium(Cr).The ecological risk of heavy metals was comprehensively evaluated using the Geo-accumulation index,Nemerow general pollution index,and potential ecological risk index.The heavy metals were traced using correlation analysis and principal component analysis.The results showed that the highest content of heavy metals was found in 0–5 cm soil layer in the study area.The average content of Zn,As,Pb,Cu,Cr,and Cd was 670,424,235,162,94,and 4 mg/kg,respectively,all exceeding the risk screening value of agricultural soil in China.The areas with high content of soil heavy metals were mainly distributed near the tailings pond.The study area was affected by a combination of multiple heavy metals,with Cd and As reaching severe pollution levels.The three pathways of exposure for carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic risks were ranked as inhalation>oral ingestion>dermal absorption.The heavy metals in the study area posed certain hazards to human health.Specifically,oral ingestion of these heavy metals carried carcinogenic risks for both children and adults,as well as noncarcinogenic risks for children.There were differences in the sources of different heavy metals.The tailings pond had a large impact on the accumulation of Cd,Zn,and Pb.The source of Cr was the soil parent material,the source of As was mainly the soil matrix,and the source of Cu was mainly the nearby Cu ore.The purpose of this study is to more accurately understand the extent,scope,and source of heavy metals pollution near a typical mining area,providing effective help to solve the problem of heavy metals pollution.

Ecological risk assessment and early warning of heavy metal cumulation in the soils near the Luanchuan molybdenum polymetallic mine concentration area,Henan Province,central China

The Luanchuan molybdenum polymetallic mine concentration area is rich in mineral resources and has a long history of mining.The environmental impact of long-term mining activities cannot be ignored.It is of great significance to study the ecological risk and the accumulation trends of heavy metals in the soil of mining areas for scientific prevention and control of heavy metal pollution.Taking the Taowanbeigou River Basin in the mine concentration area as the research object,the ecological pollution risk and cumulative effect of heavy metals in the soil of the basin were studied by using the comprehensive pollution index method,potential ecological risk assessment method and geoaccumulation index method.On this basis,the cumulative exceeding years of specific heavy metals were predicted by using the early warning model.The comprehensive potential ecological risk of heavy metals in the soil near the Luanchuan mine concentration area is moderate,and the single element Cd is the main ecological risk factor,with a contribution rate of 53.6%.The overall cumulative degrees of Cu and Pb in the soil are“none-moderate”,Zn and Cd are moderate,Mo has reached an extremely strong cumulative level,Hg,As and Cr risks are not obvious,and the overall cumulative risks order is Mo>Cd>Zn>Cu>Pb>Hg.According to the current accumulation rate and taking the risk screening values for soil contamination of agricultural land as the reference standard,the locations over standard rates of Cu,Zn and Cd will exceed 78%in 90years,and the over standard rate of Pb will reach approximately 57%in 200 years.The cumulative exceeding standard periods of As,Cr and Hg are generally long,which basically indicates that these elements do not pose a significant potential threat to the ecological environment.Mining activities will accelerate the accumulation of heavy metals in soil.With the continuous development of mining activities,the potential pollution risk of heavy metals in the soil of mining areas will also increase.

Residual subsidence time series model in mountain area caused by underground mining based on GNSS online monitoring

The residual subsidence caused by underground mining in mountain area has a long subsidence duration time and great potential harm,which seriously threatens the safety of people's production and life in the mining area.Therefore,it is necessary to use appropriate monitoring methods and mathematical models to effectively monitor and predict the residual subsidence caused by underground mining.Compared with traditional level survey and InSAR(Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar)technology,GNSS(Global Navigation Satellite System)online monitoring technology has the advantages of long-term monitoring,high precision and more flexible monitoring methods.The empirical equation method of residual subsidence in mining subsidence is effectively combined with the rock creep equation,which can not only describe the residual subsidence process from the mechanism,but also predict the residual subsidence.Therefore,based on GNSS online monitoring technology,combined with the mining subsidence model of mountain area and adding the correlation coefficient of the compaction degree of caving broken rock and the Kelvin model of rock mechanics,this paper constructs the residual subsidence time series model of arbitrary point on the ground in mountain area.Through the example,the predicted results of the model in the inversion parameter phase and the dynamic prediction phase are compared with the measured data sequence.The results show that the model can carry out effective numerical calculation according to the GNSS monitoring data of any point on the ground,and the model prediction effect is good,which provides a new method for the prediction of residual subsidence in mountain mining.

Spatiotemporal mapping of(ultra‐)mafic magmatic mine areas:Implications of economic and political realities in China

The spatiotemporal extension/expansion of mine areas is affected by multiple factors.So far,very little has been done to examine the interaction between mine areas and political or economic realities.The(ultra‐)mafic magmatic mines in China played a specific role in supporting national development and providing an ideal research subject for monitoring their interrelationship.In this study,remote sensing and mining‐related GIS data were used to identify and analyze 1233(ultra‐)mafic magmatic mine area polygons in China,which covered approximately 322.96 km2 of land and included a V–Ti–Fe mine,a copper–nickel mine,a chromite mine,an asbestos mine,and a diamond mine.It was found that(1)the areal expansion of mines is significantly related to the mine types,perimeter,topography,and population density.(2)The mine area variation also reflects market and policy realities.The temporal expansion of the mine area from 2010 to 2020 followed an S‐shaped pattern(with the turning point occurring in 2014),closely related to iron overcapacity and tightened mining policies.(3)The complexity(D)of the mine area may reflect mine design and excavation practices.To be specific,lower D indicates early‐stage or artisanal/small‐scale mining,whereas higher D represents large‐scale mining.This study demonstrates that the detailed mapping of mine land can serve as an indicator to implement miningrelated market and policy changes.The(ultra‐)mafic mines area data set can be accessed at https://zenodo.org/record/7636616#.Y-p0uXaZOa0.

Analysis on Typical Spatio-temporal Characteristics of Open-cast Mining and Its Countermeasures

In order to deal with the special spatio-temporal environmental changes encountered in the process of open-cast mining,taking Huolinhe No.1 Open-cast Mine as the research object,this paper studied its typical problems in river reconstruction and cultural relics protection.The study focused on eight key core aspects,including the design optimization of the spatial layout of the mining area,the accurate estimation of the mineral resources reserves,the scientific theoretical demonstration of the mining scale,the fine analysis and calculation of the stripping ratio,the comprehensive consideration of the transport distance and efficiency,the accurate judgment of the best time for the implementation of the transformation,the analysis and evaluation of the slope stability,and the overall planning of the production system.The results show that the extracted problem-solving strategies and scheme system for special mining conditions can not only provide specific and practical guidance for Huolinhe No.1 Open-cast Mine,but also serve as a valuable reference and practical reference for other open-cast mine enterprises facing similar challenges.

Spatial prediction of soil organic carbon in coal mining subsidence areas based on RBF neural network

A quantitative research on the effect of coal mining on the soil organic carbon(SOC)pool at regional scale is beneficial to the scientific management of SOC pools in coal mining areas and the realization of coal low-carbon mining.Moreover,the spatial prediction model of SOC content suitable for coal mining subsidence area is a scientific problem that must be solved.Tak-ing the Changhe River Basin of Jincheng City,Shanxi Province,China,as the study area,this paper proposed a radial basis function neural network model combined with the ordinary kriging method.The model includes topography and vegetation factors,which have large influence on soil properties in mining areas,as input parameters to predict the spatial distribution of SOC in the 0-20 and 2040 cm soil layers of the study area.And comparing the prediction effect with the direct kriging method,the results show that the mean error,the mean absolute error and the root mean square error between the predicted and measured values of SOC content predicted by the radial basis function neural network are lower than those obtained by the direct kriging method.Based on the fitting effect of the predicted and measured values,the R^(2) obtained by the radial basis artificial neural network are 0.81,0.70,respectively,higher than the value of 0.44 and 0.36 obtained by the direct kriging method.Therefore,the model combining the artificial neural network and kriging,and considering environmental factors can improve the prediction accuracy of the SOC content in mining areas.

Combination of artificial zeolite and microbial fertilizer to improve mining soils in an arid area of Inner Mongolia,China

Restoration of mining soils is important to the vegetation and environment.This study aimed to explore the variations in soil nutrient contents,microbial abundance,and biomass under different gradients of substrate amendments in mining soils to select effective measures.Soil samples were collected from the Bayan Obo mining region in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,China.Contents of soil organic matter(SOM),available nitrogen(AN),available phosphorus(AP),available potassium(AK),microbial biomass carbon/microbial biomass nitrogen(MBC/MBN)ratio,biomass,and bacteria,fungi,and actinomycetes abundance were assessed in Agropyron cristatum L.Gaertn.,Elymus dahuricus Turcz.,and Medicago sativa L.soils with artificial zeolite(AZ)and microbial fertilizer(MF)applied at T0(0 g/kg),T1(5 g/kg),T2(10 g/kg),and T3(20 g/kg).Redundancy analysis(RDA)and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution(TOPSIS)were used to identify the main factors controlling the variation of biomass.Results showed that chemical indices and microbial content of restored soils were far greater than those of control.The application of AZ significantly increases SOM,AN,and AP by 20.27%,23.61%,and 40.43%,respectively.AZ significantly increased bacteria,fungi,and actinomycetes abundance by 0.63,3.12,and 1.93 times of control,respectively.RDA indicated that AN,MBC/MBN ratio,and SOM were dominant predictors for biomass across samples with AZ application,explaining 87.6%of the biomass variance.SOM,MBC/MBN ratio,and AK were dominant predictors with MF application,explaining 82.9%of the biomass variance.TOPSIS indicated that T2 was the best dosage and the three plant species could all be used to repair mining soils.AZ and MF application at T2 concentration in the mining soils with M.sativa was found to be the most appropriate measure.

Quality evaluation of land reclamation in mining area based on remote sensing

Several deficiencies exist in the present evaluation of land reclamation quality in mining areas.These include the absence of an established set of evaluation index systems and standard acceptance criteria,as well as the use of traditional sam-pling techniques,which are costly and in eficiency,and time-consuming.Compared with the traditional sampling survey methods,remote sensing has the advantages of a wide detection range,diverse information collection,multiple data-acquiring strategies,high speed,and short cycle.In this study,we used the Xinzhuang coal mining field in Yongcheng,Henan Province as an example to extract information and invert surface parameters using remote sensing techniques,based on national and local reclamation regulations and standards.Subsequently,using remote sensing,we constructed an index system for evaluating land reclamation quality in three aspects:reclaiming project quality,soil quality,and ecological benefits.Through the grading standards of evaluation indicators and quantitative remote sensing models,we determined the extracted information on the area of indicators,roads,ditches,soil moisture,organic matter,and ecological benefits after reclamation.Based on this,we established a quality evaluation model for mining land reclamation using an improved index and method.The evaluation units were divided,and the weight of the evaluation index was determined using the analytic hierarchy process and data envelopment analysis(AHP-DEA)method.The land reclamation quality in the study area was comprehensively evaluated,field accuracy was verified,and the results were analyzed.The results show that,except for the removal of roads,houses,and fishponds in the study area,all 13 evaluation units achieved a score of 60 points or higher.The quality of reclamation met the standards,and the evaluation results were consistent with the conclusions of the field investigation and project acceptance report,demonstrating the reliability and feasibility of the method developed in this study.The research results will provide technical support for the scientific evaluation of land reclamation quality.

Discussion on the application prospect of the transient electromagnetic method based on the dual launcher and mine advanced detection

The dual transmitter implements the equivalent anti-magnetic flux transient electromagnetic method, which can effectively reduce the scope of the transient electromagnetic detection blind area. However, this method is rarely reported in the detection of pipelines in urban geophysical exploration and the application of coal mines. Based on this, this paper realizes the equivalent anti-magnetic flux transient electromagnetic method based on the dual launcher. The suppression effect of this method on the blind area is analyzed by physical simulation. And the detection experiment of underground pipelines is carried out outdoors. The results show that the dual launcher can significantly reduce the turn-off time, thereby effectively reducing the impact of the blind area on the detection results, and the pipeline detection results verify the device’s effectiveness. Finally, based on the ground experimental results, the application prospect of mine advanced detection is discussed. Compared with other detection fields, the formation of blind areas is mainly caused by the equipment. If the dual launcher can be used to reduce the blind area, the accuracy of advanced detection can be improved more effectively. The above research results are of great significance for improving the detection accuracy of the underground transient electromagnetic method.

Production Characteristics and the Control Factors of Surface Wells for Relieved Methane Drainage in the Huainan Mining Area

Based on the production data of a large number of surface drainage wells in the Huainan mining area,the present study shows that four types of typical production characteristics for relieved methane wells are recognized,of which the stable type for production and gas concentration is the most dominate,as determined by a comprehensive study on the volume and concentration of drained gases, as well as the stress changes of rocks influenced by mining.Some influence factors for the productive differences of the drainage wells were also been discussed.The results indicate that protective coal-seam mining has a significant effect on overlying strata,which promotes the development of pores and fractures of coal reservoirs for methane desorption and migration;however,the production and the stability of drainage wells are affected by deformation and damage of the overlying strata.The second distribution of strata stress is caused by mining engineering,and if the stress load is larger than the carrying capacity of the extraction well,the gas production would be influenced by the drainage well that has been damaged by rock movement.Furthermore,the case damage occurs first in the weak, lithologic interface by its special mechanical properties.The stability of drainage wells and the production status are also influenced by the different drilling techniques,uneven distribution of gas concentration,and combination of gob gas and methane from the protected layer.

Exploitation technology of pressure relief coalbed methane in vertical surface wells in the Huainan coal mining area

Exploitation technology of pressure relief coalbed methane in vertical surface wells is a new method for exploration of gas and coalbed methane exploitation in mining areas with high concentrations of gas, where tectonic coal developed. Studies on vertical surface well technology in the Huainan Coal Mining area play a role in demonstration in the use of clean, new energy resources, preventing and reducing coal mine gas accidents and protecting the environment. Based on the practice of gas drainage engineering of pressure relief coalbed methane in vertical surface wells and combined with relative geological and exploration en- gineering theories, the design principles of design and structure of wells of pressure relief coalbed methane in vertical surface wells are studied. The effects of extraction and their causes are discussed and the impact of geological conditions on gas production of the vertical surface wells are analyzed. The results indicate that in mining areas with high concentrations of gas, where tectonic coal developed, a success rate of pressure relief coalbed methane in surface vertical well is high and single well production usually great. But deformation due to coal exploitation could damage boreholes and cause breaks in the connection between aquifers and bore-holes, which could induce a decrease, even a complete halt in gas production of a single well. The design of well site location and wellbore configuration are the key for technology. The development of the geological conditions for coalbed methane have a significant effect on gas production of coalbed methane wells.

Case study on the extraction of land cover information from the SAR image of a coal mining area

In this study,analyses are conducted on the information features of a construction site,a cornfield and subsidence seeper land in a coal mining area with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image of medium resolution. Based on features of land cover of the coal mining area,on texture feature extraction and a selection method of a gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) of the SAR image,we propose in this study that the optimum window size for computing the GLCM is an appropriate sized window that can effectively distinguish different types of land cover. Next,a band combination was carried out over the text feature images and the band-filtered SAR image to secure a new multi-band image. After the transformation of the new image with principal component analysis,a classification is conducted selectively on three principal component bands with the most information. Finally,through training and experimenting with the samples,a better three-layered BP neural network was established to classify the SAR image. The results show that,assisted by texture information,the neural network classification improved the accuracy of SAR image classification by 14.6%,compared with a classification by maximum likelihood estimation without texture information.

Study on the change rule of groundwater level and its impacts on vegetation at arid mining area

The shallow groundwater in Shendong mining area was broken because of large-scale underground mining activities. Selecting 32201 working-face as research area, analyzed the change rule of groundwater level and aquifer thickness under mining impact with a large number of water level observation data. Then, the impacts of groundwater level change on vegetation were analyzed by the relationship theory of arid area groundwater and vegetation. The results show that the aquifer structure and the water condition of supply flow and drainage are changed by the water proof mining. The groundwater level recovere only a little compared with the original groundwater level in two years. But the great change of groundwater level do not have notable influences on vegetation of this mining area, and further study indicates that there are certain conditions where groundwater level change impacted on vegetation. When the influence of groundwater level change was evaluated, the plant ecological water level, warning water level and spatial distribution character of original groundwater and mining-impacted groundwater-level change should be integrated.

Investigating spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture content in an arid mining area using an improved thermal inertia model

Mining operations can usually lead to environmental deteriorations. Underground mining activities could cause an extensive decrease in groundwater level and thus a dramatic variation in soil moisture content（SMC）. In this study, the spatial and temporal variations of SMC from 2001 to 2015 at two spatial scales（i.e., the Shendong coal mining area and the Daliuta Coal Mine） were analyzed using an improved thermal inertia model with a long-term series of Landsat TM/OLI（TM=Thematic Mapper and OLI=Operational Land Imager） data. Our results show that at large spatial scale（the Shendong coal mining area）, underground mining activities had insignificant negative impacts on SMC and that at small spatial scale（the Daliuta Coal Mine）, underground mining activities had significant negative impacts on SMC. Trend analysis of SMC demonstrated that areas with decreasing trend of SMC were mainly distributed in the mined area, indicating that underground mining is a primary cause for the drying trend in the mining region in this arid environment.

Migration and speciation transformation mechanisms of mercury in undercurrent zones of the Tongguan gold mining area, Shaanxi Loess Plateau and impact on the environment

In order to study the migration and transformation mechanism of Hg content and occurrence form in subsurface flow zone of gold mining area in Loess Plateau and its influence on water environment,the field in-situ infiltration test and laboratory test were carried out in three typical sections of river-side loess,alluvial and proluvial strata in Tongguan gold mining area of Shaanxi Province,and the following results were obtained:(1)The source of Hg in subsurface flow zone is mainly caused by mineral processing activities;(2)the subsurface flow zone in the study area is in alkaline environment,and the residual state,iron and manganese oxidation state,strong organic state and humic acid state of mercury in loess are equally divided in dry and oxidizing environment;mercury in river alluvial or diluvial strata is mainly concentrated in silt,tailings and clayey silt soil layer,and mercury has certain stability,and the form of mercury in loess is easier to transform than the other two media;(3)under the flooding condition,most of mercury is trapped in the silt layer in the undercurrent zone where the sand and silt layers alternate with each other and the river water and groundwater are disjointed,and the migration capacity of mercury is far less than that of loess layer and alluvial layer with close hydraulic connection;(4)infiltration at the flood level accelerates the migration of pollutants to the ground;(5)the soil in the undercurrent zone is overloaded and has seriously exceeded the standard.Although the groundwater monitoring results are safe this time,relevant enterprises or departments should continue to pay attention to improving the gold extraction process,especially vigorously rectify the small workshops for illegal gold extraction and the substandard discharge of the three wastes,and intensify efforts to solve the geological environmental problems of mines left over from history.At present,the occurrence form of mercury in the undercurrent zone is relatively stable,but the water and soil layers have been polluted.The risk of disjointed groundwater pollution can not be ignored while giving priority to the treatment of loess and river alluvial landform areas with close hydraulic links.The research results will provide a scientific basis for water conservancy departments to groundwater prevention and control in water-deficient areas of the Loess Plateau.

The evaluation of ecosystem health in mining areas on the matter element method

According to the characteristics of ecosystem and concept of the ecosystem in mining area, the index system of the ecosystem health in mining area was set up, and the evaluation standard was established. Aiming at the complexion in which the information lost in index ration, the matter element method was put forward to evaluate the ecosystem health in mining area. Making use of the model set up, the weight was built up by the method of index number heavy, the matter element, clas- sical field, and limit field were set up. The rating hierarchy was calculated by relating function. As a case study in the mining area of Pingyangsi Town, the results show that the ecosystem is good and sustainable from 2003 to 2006, but the healthy degree is not high, and some indexes have depravation.

Design of Landscape Ecological Restoration for “Five Mining Areas” of the Laoqing Mountain in the Dianchi Lake Basin

Through analyzing basic conditions of the "five mining areas" in the Laoqing Mountain of the Dianchi Lake Basin, in Kunming City, South China, the ecological restoration design of "integrating engineering protection and biological restoration, building the landscape ecological security pattern of the Laoqing Mountain" was proposed. Considering the different ecological functional areas, varying engineering measures, greening patterns, and irrigation means were selected for the ecological restoration, including site management, vegetation restoration, management and utilization etc.. These ecological restoration measures will produce favorable ecological benefits, and also take landscape effect and sustainable development into consideration, which will contribute to the ecological restoration of the "five mining areas", and provide a scientific and feasible reference for the ecological restoration in China.

SOME KEY ISSUES ON THE APPLICATION OF SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING TO MINING AREAS

In order to apply Satellite Remote Sensing (RS) to mining areas, some key issues should be solved. Based on an introduction to relative studying background, related key issues are proposed and analyzed oriented to the development of RS information science and demands of mining areas. Band selection and combination optimization of Landsat TM is discussed firstly, and it proved that the combination of Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 has the largest information amount in all three-band combination schemes by both N-dimensional entropy method and Genetic Algorithm (GA). After that the filtering of Radarsat image is discussed. Different filtering methods are experimented and compared, and adaptive methods are more efficient than others. Finally the classification of satellite RS image is studied, and some new methods including classification by improved BPNN(Back Propagation Neural Network) and classification based on GIS and knowledge are proposed.

A New Discovery on the Deformation Behavior of Shale Gas Reservoirs Affecting Pore Morphology in the Juhugeng Coal Mining Area of Qinghai Province, Northwest China

Objective The Juhugeng mining area in Qinghai Province of northwest China has attracted wide attention among geologists for it hosts typical coal measure gases.The shale gas reservoirs were reformed by intensive structural movements during geological periods,