Economic Characteristic of Coastal Community at Mining Region, Kotabaru Regency, Indonesia

Economic development of coastal community in Kotabaru Regency has become strategic in the future. Kotabaru Regency is the geo-economic strategic position due to the position of Kotabaru region boundaries between Kalimantan Island and Sulawesi Island. Geo-economic strategic of Kotabaru should increase the coastal community welfare in Kotabaru Regency. The objective of the research is to evaluate economic characteristic of coastal community at mining area in Kotabaru Regency. The number of samples in this study is 50 respondents in each village who are in the mining area. The number of companies in the mining area is 17 companies. Data were collected by using questionnaires. The results show that economic characteristics have low category. Mining and plantation companies do not increase the economic conditions of the community. Research suggestions are： （1） to examine the potential and importance of economic empowerment model of coastal communities in the region both mining companies and plantations; （2） the important role of companies and local governments to work together in formulating a strategy for management of CSR （corporate social responsibility）, and social mapping to be done by the company in the preparation of the CSR program.

Water protection in the western semiarid coal mining regions of China: A case study

The coal industry in China has been moving from the semiarid eastern to the drier western regions since the beginning of this century.Water protection is of the utmost concern for coal mining in these regions.Lu'an,as one of the state coal mining bases in China,has been seeing increasingly heavier pressure for the protection of water resources.This article considers Lu'an as an example and describes the ways these concerns may be alleviated.High mine-water utilization rates have effectively reduced wasting of water and,consequently,have reduced water demand.Using the top layers of the Ordavician as aquifuge barriers can prevent floor karst water inrush into the longwall face and can protect the regional Ordovician karst water resources at the same time.The strength of the overlying Quaternary clay can protect against roof collapse and has successfully preserved the Quaternary porous water resource.

Contamination and health risk assessment of heavy metals in road dust in Bayan Obo Mining Region in Inner Mongolia, North China

The objective of this study was to investigate the concentration and spatial distribu- tion patterns of 9 potentially toxic heavy metal elements （As, Cd, Co, Cr, Pb, Cu, Z.n, Mn, and Ni） in road dust in the Bayan Obo Mining Region in Inner Mongolia, China. Contamination levels were evaluated using the geoaccumulation index and the enrichment factor. Human health risks for each heavy metal element were assessed using a human exposure model. Results showed that the dust contained significantly elevated heavy metal elements concen- trations compared with the background soil. The spatial distribution pattern of all tested met- als except for As coincided with the locations of industrial areas while the spatial distribution of As was associated with domestic sources. The contamination evaluation indicated that Cd, Pb, and Mn in road dust mainly originated from anthropogenic sources with a rating of ＂heav- ily polluted＂ to ＂extremely polluted,＂ whereas the remaining metals originated from both natural and anthropogenic sources with a level of ＂moderately polluted＂. The non-cancer health risk assessment showed that ingestion was the primary exposure route for all metals in the road dust and that Mn, Cr, Pb, and As were the main contributors to non-cancer risks in both children and adults. Higher HI values were calculated for children （H1=1.89）, indicating that children will likely experience higher health risks compared with adults （H1=0.23）. The cancer risk assessment showed that Cr was the main contributor, with cancer risks which were 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than those for other metals. Taken in concert, the non-cancer risks posed by all studied heavy metal elements and the cancer risks posed by As Co, Cr, Cd, and Ni to both children and adults in Bayan Obo Mining Region fell within the acceptable range.