Reclamation of Lands Disturbed by Mining of Heavy Minerals

Abstract

Reclamation in the mineral sands industry has concentrated on re-establishing native ecosystems, particularly in Australia that has been the main producer of these minerals. Heavy mineral sand mining has some unique characteristics that assist the reclamation process. This chapter describes reclamation of the wetland vegetation. The reclamation objective for the native vegetation is the re-establishment of a diverse self-sustaining ecosystem. The majority of the reclamation effort on high dunes goes into landscape reconstruction. The reclamation program is based on Australian methods, adapted to the particular site conditions. As surface soils contain high mineral concentrations and may be mined, there is a need to devise reclamation strategies to develop tailings materials into productive soils. In some parts of Western Australia, the clay slime has been dried by solar evaporation in settling ponds and spread on adjacent agricultural land to improve the productivity of the inherently infertile sandy soils.

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