Environmental Impacts Related to Closed Mines in Inner Mongolia

Honglei Liu,Cheng Duan,Mingjun Wang,Jianxin Chen,Qiang Wu,Di Zhao

doi:10.3390/su132313473

Abstract

Mining activities, while promoting social and economic development, alter the environments and ecosystems of mining areas. Some of the alterations have negative impacts on the environment, while some have positive impacts. By understanding the positive and negative impacts related to closed mines in Inner Mongolia, this research aims to seek advantages of the positive impacts on the environment and reduce the harm of the negative impacts, extending the mining value chain. The paper reviewed four main negative environmental impacts (NEIs) of closed mines and proposed four positive environmental impacts (PEIs) which include ecosystem services, cultural services, land resources and underground space resources, and energy sources and mineral resources. The paper focused on the environmental problems and the PEI utilization of closed mines in Inner Mongolia with 20 representative cases. It carefully studied the Minda Mine which is a good example to combine several PEI utilization objectives. Multiple PEI objectives, as well as the correlations among different objectives, can benefit closed mines ecologically, economically, and socially. In addition, a three-step framework for closed mine revitalization and the factors affecting the compound PEI objectives are mentioned in the paper.

Highlights

Accepted: 1 December 2021Economic development cannot be separated from the exploitation and utilization of mineral resources
The environmental impacts of closed mines can be divided into two types: negative environmental impacts (NEIs) and positive environmental impacts (PEIs) [13]
The environmental impacts of closed mines can be divided into two types: negative environmental impacts (NEI) and positive environmental impacts (PEI)

Summary

Introduction

Economic development cannot be separated from the exploitation and utilization of mineral resources. Mineral resources are a key to the rapid development of China’s economy and society, where the total output of the mining industry has been increasing continuously for decades [3]. Compared to the fanfare associated with active mines, closed mines are accorded little attention. The situation has dramatically changed with the wide attention from the public for closed mines revitalization when the awareness of the circular economy has increased all over the world. A mine is closed when the resource is depleted or exhausted, or mining is no longer economically profitable due to the increased cost of extraction or a much lower market price, or the high safety risk of mining-related activities [6]. There are three types of closed mines: abandoned mine, policy-closed mine, and orphaned mine [7]

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion