Copper ore post-flotation settling tanks in Poland: social acceptance or objection?

Abstract

The issues concerning mining have been causing a wide variety of emotions. Objection to and disagreement with new investments, but also social acceptance for the operation of mining plants offering stable employment. Production in this sector is associated with the generation of waste. In the case of copper ore mining, the result of the entrepreneur's activity consists of waste treatment facilities in the form of post-flotation settling tanks. In addition to the inactive facilities in Lower Silesia, there is also the settling tank Zelazny Most, which is used and expanded. The large area and risk to the environment allow to suppose that the existence of settling tanks in social space generates conflicts or it is conducive to the emigration of the residents. In order to verify the above-mentioned hypothesis, the authors used geographic information systems to analyse the current population status and expansion of the road and rail network, the residents’ drinking water sources and soil permeability in five impact zones. The achieved results allow to conclude that the facilities belonging to KGHM PM S.A. coexist with their surroundings, thus gaining social acceptance. The proposed research methodology can be used by the entrepreneurs, but also local authorities to evaluate the acceptance of mining waste disposal facilities.

Systematic Review of GIS and Remote Sensing Applications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Mining

“…Additionally, GIS successfully facilitated the spatial visualization of relationships between causes and mining impacts such as the case of conflict and social acceptance mapping (Craynon et al, 2015;Haslam & Ary Tanimoune, 2016;W. Liu & Agusdinata, 2020;Pactwa & Górniak-Zimroz, 2021) while also supporting the consolidation of various socioeconomic and environmental indicators such as with landscape quality assessment (Molina et al, 2016), poverty mapping via socioeconomic outcome indicators (Hentschel et al, 2000;Loayza & Rigolini, 2016;Londono Castaneda et al, 2018) and risk mapping (Chen et al, 2015;Onencan et al, 2018;Risk et al, 2020;Saedpanah & Amanollahi, 2019). Aside from being an effective stakeholder engagement tool, participatory GIS and geovisualization combined allow for the rapid and effective communication of data patterns, useful for assisting decisionmaking processes to evaluate where, how and why changes have occurred and exactly where to target efforts for mitigation and land use planning.…”

Cathodic Protection System of the Spiral Classifier at the KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. Ore Concentration Plant—Case Study of Commissioning and Control of Operating Parameters

“…The produced concentrate ultimately undergoes drainage, filtration, and drying processes, before being sent to steel mills. Meanwhile, the generated waste, which makes up 94% of the processed material, is sent to the " Żelazny Most" Mining Waste Treatment Facility [4].…”