Environmentally balanced geotechnology for development of natural and man-made geological resources

More than 9 billion tons of industrial and consumption wastes are generated annually, of which about 90% are from mining of minerals, including the share of over 70% from coal mining and about 25% from metal ore mining. Tackling the issues related to mining waste management is a highly topical task that involves a number of aspects in the fields of legislation, scientific, methodological and design support, as well as technical and technological solutions. In order to reduce the negative consequences associated with the disposal of such a significant amount of waste, a governmental concept of rational nature management has been formulated, which aims to regulate its use and economic rehabilitation. Legislative initiatives stimulate environmentally conscious mining and comprehensive use of georesources. This calls for the development of a scientific basis for designing mining engineering systems and the search for new environmentally balanced technical and technological solutions for deposit development. Examples of large-scale and successful use of ecologically balanced solutions are the development projects of the Mikheyevskoye and Tarutinskoye deposits, where, in the case of the sinking mining system, the overburden is planned to be used for filling the mined-out space, and the dumps are placed both taking into account the maximum preservation of the forest area and to ensure natural ventilation of the open pits. At Mikheyevsky GOK, a solution is being implemented to combine the construction of a dump site and a tailings dam. The projects for abandonment of the Alexandrinsky mine and the Korkinsky coal mine include the use of mill tailing as the basis for the backfill material preparation. Such solutions ensure both elimination of accumulated damage and reduction of current waste generation.