Richard Takyi, R. Hassan, Badr El Mahrad, Richard Adade
{"title":"Socio-ecological Analysis of Artisanal Gold Mining in West Africa: A Case study of Ghana.","authors":"Richard Takyi, R. Hassan, Badr El Mahrad, Richard Adade","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1322","url":null,"abstract":"The surge in artisanal gold mining (AGM) activities and the associated environmental impact in Ghana have elicited several stakeholders' attempts to curb the problem. However, due to little understanding of the underlying issues, these efforts have been ineffective. This study aims to use a socio-ecological framework to analyze drivers of AGM activities, the environmental pressures, the state change, their impact on human welfare, and the management response as measures (DAPSI(W)R(M)) to the problem. Evaluate AGM's impact on Ghana's ability to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Data were collected from relevant literature on the subject and analyzed with the DAPSI(W) R(M) framework. Esteem needs, food, acceptance and friendship, and self-actualization are the main drivers of AGM activities leading to environmental pressures, including abrasion, extraction of living and non-living resources, the introductionofnon-synthetic compounds, amongothers. State changes of the environment resulting from thepressures generated byhuman activitieswere changes in the land and forest cover (1.13%), topography (hills turned into flatland and undulating), and biota. Due to the state in the environment, water quality and availability, agriculture food production, fish yield, food safety, spiritual and cultural loss, death, injury, and health of gold miners and other stakeholders have been affected.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77614400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Growth of invasive plant species communities as a substantial issue in post-mining land development","authors":"P. Olszewski","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1321","url":null,"abstract":"This article concerns the issue of the appearance and growth of invasive plant species in land degraded by hard coal mining as well as the repercussions of this process, particularly in the context of land reclamation. These species, such as e.g. Canadian goldenrod or Japanese knotweed, which nearly always form extensive and monocultural patches of vegetation, contribute to the displacement of both native species and those introduced as part of biological restoration. In 2015, the Central Mining Institute in Katowice prepared a land development concept for a part of the area of the former KWK Pary _ z mine in Dąbrowa G ornicza (Upper Silesian Industrial Region e Poland), based on its resources and potential, encompassing the “Jadwiga” dump and its vicinity. The presented actions scenarios did not fully factor in the issue related to the growth and control of invasive plant species. Studies of the growth of invasive species communities, conducted from 2015 to 2019 with the use of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles), revealed the significant propagation of the Japanese knotweed Polygonetum cuspidati (Moor 1958) Th. Müller et G€ ors 1969 ex G€ ors 1974 association as well as the Canadian goldenrod Solidago canadensis community. Their elimination increases the cost of the reclamation by 18%.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76800531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The factors impacting the incorporation of the Sustainable Development Goals into Raw Materials Engineering Curricula","authors":"D. Damigos, G. Valakas, A. Gaki, K. Adam","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1320","url":null,"abstract":"It is widely recognised and acknowledged that the mining industry, if properly operating and managed, has the potential to positively contribute to “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. In this direction, the Raw Materials (RM) engineering education possesses a crucial role, given the need to instil in tomorrow's mining engineers the sustainability principles. This paper explores the educational needs of the Greek RM sector and the factors constituting the RM whole value chain SDGs-education-innovation eco-system. The research follows a two-stage focus group approach. First, the perceptions, opinions and beliefs of invited stakeholders were explored in the context of semistructured interviews. Then, the stakeholders were requested to identify the main components of the RM-SDGs-education-innovation eco-system using the Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) method. According to the results, the incorporation of the sustainable development (SD) principles in the educational process is considered a priority. However, only a few courses provide the basics of SD principles in the Greek RM engineering curricula, so far. Further, the FCM approach offered the means to explore the factors identified by the stakeholders as pivotal in the RM-SDGs-educationinnovation system and the interactions between them.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87231853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Surviving and growing up with illegal status”: The Analysis of Socio–Economic Household, Potential Conflict, the Environmental Damage, and Vulnerability of Local Community to Disaster","authors":"S. Syahnur, Yossi Diantimala","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1061","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to analyze, from social-economics and environmental perspectives, how illegal gold mining survives and grows with its illegal status. Generally, illegal mining has a positive impact on the socio-economy of all parties involved. However, mining activities cause environmental damage and pollution so that the local community is vulnerable to disaster and potential conflict. This research was conducted at an illegal mining site in Aceh, the western province of Indonesia. To describe the primary data, it employs a descriptive qualitative method. The purposive sampling method is used to select key informants. The results show an increasing income of all stakeholders involved. To minimize environmental damage and pollution, illegal mining uses a very simpledbut very environmentally friendlydtool, “Asbhuk”, which does not harm the sustainability of the natural environment, especially the use of wells and mountain springs. Nevertheless, natural disasters often occur in the mining area, such as overflowing rivers and landslides caused by heavy rainfall. It is a negative impact from changes in the structure of mining land, forest encroachment, and the expansion of the river. There is no significant conflict between direct and indirect parties engaged in illegal mining activities. The direct parties desire this mining activity to be conducted by artisanal and small groups.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86878225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Flow Characterization In Mine Ventilation Fan Blade Design Using CFD","authors":"Anwar Endris Hassen","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1063","url":null,"abstract":"In axial ventilation fans, the generation of a uniform flow velocity is desirable for better efficiency. To that end, different fan blade types have been developed to achieve better flow uniformity. This article aimed to characterize the flow distribution and its uniformity in four blade designs, namely constant chord, tapered blade, skewed blade, and tapered skewed blade, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The study employs an iterative study where key study decisions are made as the study progresses. The study began with the selection of a blade profile for the study. A comparative study between the NACA seven-digit and four-digit series was conducted and for its higher flow throughput, the four-digit airfoil profile was selected. Next, with 30 and 40 Angle of Attack (AoA), the constant chord blade flow pattern is characterized. At 40 AoA flow disturbance and high-velocity spots were observed establishing the problem statement. Following that, three optimization strategies (tapering, skewing, and taper skewing) were applied in the design, and the flow pattern of each design was studied. Using a dispersion study a flow uniformity comparison between the models conducted. The property trade-off between three key performance indicators: efficiency, flow rate, and flow uniformity studied. The result shows an axial fan having a higher efficiency doesn't necessarily mean it has higher throughput whereas lower flow dispersion relates to the system's higher efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that seeking higher efficiency and flow uniformity in the design and development of axial fans comes with system throughput trade-off.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87200785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Application of Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry to monitor surface deformations of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) – A case study of the motorways crossing areas of mining operations in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland","authors":"A. Smoliński, Mariusz Stawinoga, T. Pindel","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1319","url":null,"abstract":"Underground hard coal mining causes surface deformations. When the mining operations are conducted beneath linear objects, such as motorways, there is a risk of deformations of the axis of the road and its horizontal and vertical alignment (additional bends and vertical curvatures, longitudinal inclinations, deformations of cross-sections). In the areas subjected to mining operations, mining plants conduct geodetic monitoring. Due to their labour intensity and costs, geodetic measurements are usually made only a few times a year. The article discusses the possibility of applying Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to monitor the subsidence of the vertical alignment of motorways caused by mining operations and its advantages and disadvantages compared to the currently used methods of geodetic measurements. The tests were conducted in two sections of motorways within the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Poland) in the areas of intensive hard coal mining operations. Radar imaging of the surface made by the European Space Agency's (ESA) satellite Sentinel-1 equipped with the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) was used.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91391292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Zmami, O. Ben-Salha, Sultan O. Almarshad, Houyem Chekki
{"title":"The contribution of mining sector to sustainable development in Saudi Arabia","authors":"M. Zmami, O. Ben-Salha, Sultan O. Almarshad, Houyem Chekki","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1056","url":null,"abstract":"The mining sector development is among the priorities of the Saudi Vision 2030. There is currently a lot of interest in the role of the mining sector in Saudi Arabia. This research contributes to this debate by empirically assessing the effects of mining on sustainable development in Saudi Arabia during the period 1980e2018. Unlike many previous studies, the three sustainable development dimensions, namely economic, social, and environmental, are jointly considered. The cointegration analysis, based on the ARDL, GregoryeHansen, and combined cointegration tests, confirms the existence of long-run relationships between mining and all sustainable development dimensions. Furthermore, the findings lend substantial evidence on the importance of the mining sector in enhancing economic and social sustainability in the shortand long-run. There is, however, no evidence of the existence of adverse environmental effects of mining. The long-run effects of mining are robust to a battery of robustness and stability tests. Suitable policy recommendations are subse-","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74891721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nikolaos Paraskevis, Aikaterini Servou, C. Roumpos, F. Pavloudakis
{"title":"Spatiotemporal Interactions between Surface Coal Mining and Land Cover and Use Changes","authors":"Nikolaos Paraskevis, Aikaterini Servou, C. Roumpos, F. Pavloudakis","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1053","url":null,"abstract":"Long-term surface mining and land cover/use changes have been evidenced to have a critical relationship. This study investigates the evolution of this relationship for Ptolemais (Northern Greece) coal mining area during the period 1990e2018. In this context, satellite images, Corine data, and mining maps were used. A relative spatial indicator (RSI) was adopted to describe the mineral land areas and ArcGIS tools to define the land cover and use changes. Furthermore, mine operation parameters were statistically analyzed concerning land cover/use areas. The study revealed that areas described as “mineral extraction sites” present a strong correlation with “non-irrigated arable land” and “transitional woodland”. From 1990 to 2018, the total forest area was increased by three times, mainly as a result of the dumping sites’ geometry. Additionally, the mine operation parameters are well correlated with the active mining area, and more specifically, there is a linear relationship between the stripping ratio and the ratio of lignite production to active mining area. In the general case, the calculated annual changing rate of land use types may contribute to the prediction of future land reclamation uses and, consequently, to land reclamation planning in due time.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83134598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. A. Abuntori, S. Al-Hassan, D. Mireku-Gyimah, Y. Ziggah
{"title":"Evaluating the Performance of Extreme Learning Machine Technique for Ore Grade Estimation","authors":"C. A. Abuntori, S. Al-Hassan, D. Mireku-Gyimah, Y. Ziggah","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1062","url":null,"abstract":"Due to the complex geology of vein deposits and their erratic grade distributions, there is the tendency of over-estimating or underestimating the ore grade. These estimated grade results determine the pro fi tability of mining the ore deposit or otherwise. In this study, fi ve Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) variants based on hard limit, sigmoid, triangular basis, sine and radial basis activation functions were applied to predict ore grade. The motive is that the activation function has been identi fi ed to play a key role in achieving optimum ELM performance. Therefore, assessing the extent of in fl uence the activation functions will have on the fi nal outputs from the ELM has some scienti fi c value worth investigating. This study therefore applied ELM as ore grade estimator which is yet to be explored in the literature. The obtained results from the fi ve ELM variants were analysed and compared with the state-of-the-art benchmark methods of Back-propagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Ordinary Kriging (OK). The statistical test results revealed that the ELM with sigmoid activation function (ELM-Sigmoid) was the best among all the other investigated methods (ELM-Hard limit, ELM-Triangular basis, ELM-Sine, ELM-Radial Basis, BPNN and OK). This is because the ELM-sigmoid produced the lowest MAE (0.0175), MSE (0.0005) and RMSE (0.0229) with highest R 2 (91.93%) and R (95.88%) respectively. It was concluded that ELM-Sigmoid can be used by fi eld practitioners as a reliable alternative ore grade estimation technique.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81722547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Selection mining methods via multiple criteria decision analysis using TOPSIS and modification of the UBC method","authors":"Mahrous A. M. Ali, Jong-Gwan Kim","doi":"10.46873/2300-3960.1054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46873/2300-3960.1054","url":null,"abstract":"Mine designers often face difficulties in selecting an appropriate mining method; however, such a method should be selected based on ore and rock characteristics. The selection of mining methods can be considered a type of multi-criteria decision making, and this depends on many factors used in the selection process. The general method used in this field is the University of British Columbia (UBC) method, which determines the criteria of the properties that are compared to determine the best and worst of several mining methods. In this paper we used as new technique which define as Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The criteria considered in the UBC method include general shape, ore thickness, ore plunge, and grade distribution, beside the rock quality designation (RQD), and the rock substance strength (RSS). This paper presents an improved TOPSIS method based on experimental design. Additionally, this paper will introduce a modified version of the UBC method that can be employed based on Excel sheet. The best mining methods is cut and fill Stoping and Top slicing with the same rank equal 0.72, and the second-best mining method is Square set Stoping with rank equal 0.65.","PeriodicalId":37284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainable Mining","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86764352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}