Properties of Soils of Abandoned Coal Mine Industrial Areas (Primorsky Krai, Russia)

Abstract

Lipovtsy coal field mine №4 processed north-western reserves of Lipovtsy field in Primorski Krai (Russia). In 1997, the mine was declared unprofitable and was abandoned by natural flooding with no arrangement of mine water discharge and in 2005 it was fully flooded. The main sources of pollution in the studied area are spoil heaps (mine wastes), underspoil filtering waters and mine waters which are being discharged on the surface after finishing of "hydraulic funnel" artificial support. The study of technogenic landscape of abandoned mine industrial area showed that its morphologic form is dominated by spoil heaps. Soils located near mine waste body differ from benchmark soils by chemical properties and size distribution. The influence of active hydrochemical mine and drainage water flows is the reason of the above-mentioned variation in soil properties. Results showed that, there exist a high correlation ratios between chemical composition of mine waters and water extracts from soil: Between the alkalinity of mine waters and electrical conductivity of soil water extracts (r = 0.73), between mine water iron content and pH of soil water extract (r = −0.56), between the solid residue of mine waters and electrical conductivity of soil water extracts (r = 0.72), between the mine waters calcium content and electrical conductivity of soil water extracts (r = −0.75), between the alkalinity of mine waters and silicon dioxide content of soil water extracts (r = 0.61), between the mineralization of mine waters and chrome content of soil water extracts (r = 0.73).