An Overview of Sustainable Mining Practices for Ecological Rehabilitation of Degraded Lands in the Rovinari Mining Basin (Romania). Case Study: North Pesteana Interior Dump

Open-pit mining, regardless of the nature of deposit and the exploitation type (continuous or discontinuous), produces long-term negative effects on the environment. The immediately visible effects are related to the changes in the morphological configuration and the landscape: the disappearance of the plant cover and topsoil on the entire surface of the mining perimeter, the development of deep open-pits, the appearance of waste dumps, the construction of premises and technological roads, etc. The uncovering of a deposit is carried out by removing the vegetation and excavating the soil, followed by the excavation of the sterile material from the deposit's roof, and is a destructive action with consequences for the local habitat and fauna on long term and sometimes, unfortunately, the effects can be hardly reversible or even irreversible. The environmental component that suffers the most as a result of mining is the soil and with it the entire ecosystem in the area. Soil is a resource that is very difficult to regenerate. Natural soil formation takes a long time, tens and hundreds of years. Therefore, it is important to find and apply solutions to maintain or improve its quality whenever possible or to support the pedogenesis process by applying sustainable practices in order to accelerate it. Some of these practices can be applied even during mining activities. The purpose of this research is to find and recommend the best solutions that can be applied in different stages of the lifecycle of a mine and which, applied together, have a synergistic role and a remarkable effect on the pedogenesis process and on its duration. That is why it is very important to design the mining activity from opening to closing, taking into account the decommissioning of buildings, the rehabilitation and revegetation of degraded lands for the subsequent inclusion in the landscape and the resumption of its functions.