Substantiation of the effectiveness of a new technology for the functioning of a natural technological system for the treatment of acid mine waters

The article is devoted to solving an urgent problem related to the management of processes occurring at the post-operational stage of the functioning of the natural
technology system formed by mothballed mining operations. The purpose of the study is to
build a mathematical model for evaluating the effectiveness of technologies for eliminating accumulated environmental damage when used in a natural technology system formed by
copper-pyrite mines that have been wet-preserved. The model is based on the results of an ontology-oriented analysis and allows comparing technologies, taking into account the fact that
each of the sources of environmental and economic damage belonging to the natural technology
system is at the same time a resource of demanded commodity products. The use of existing technologies leads to the blocking of mineral resources contained in acidic mine waters. A new technology has been proposed that has already passed bench tests – a technology for purifying acidic mine waters with the extraction of commercial products – ferrites. Using the example of such an ONVOS as the territory of the Levikhinsky ore field, the ecological and economic justification of the effectiveness of this technology is given. Compared to existing technologies,
the proposed one is more effective in terms of preventing some of the environmental and
economic damage and generating additional income from the sale of a marketable product.

Zobnin B. B., Mochalova L. A. Substantiation of the effectiveness of a new technology for the functioning of a natural technological system for the treatment of acid mine waters. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2025;(12-1):117-130. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_ 1493_2025_121_0_117.

The project was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation 24-17-20033 and the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region.

B.B. Zobnin¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Professor, Professor, e-mail: zobninbb@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0653-1131,
L.A. Mochalova¹, Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Assistant Professor, e-mail: lyudmila.mochalova@m.ursmu.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0983-826X,
¹ Ural State Mining University, 620144, Ekaterinburg, Russia.

L.A. Mochalova, e-mail: lyudmila.mochalova@m.ursmu.ru.

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