Assessment of hydrosphere formation factors in nature-and-technology systems: A case-study of the upstream basin of the Tagil River in the Sverdlovsk Region

The territory of actual mineral mining is an integrated system of nature and technology, which has been forming for dozens of years under the influence of many factors, both in the course of operation and after its completion. The period of active operation is accompanied with the formation of depression cones and activation of geomechanical processes. In the collapse zones and in dumps, discontinuities enlarge the interaction surface at active absorption of atmospheric precipitation rich in oxygen. In the upper part of the hydrosphere disturbed by mining operations, a new natural–manmade geological body is formed; it represents an induced hypergenesis zone—this is a sulfuric acid weathering crust enriched with secondary minerals such as sulfate crystallohydrates, hydroxides and hydrous oxides. Termination of mining is accompanied with filling of the depression cone, and a new factor of the nature-and-technology system formation in the mined-out area appears—the hydrosphere in this area becomes a source of yield of the previously accumulated acid potential. For many years, it has been an almost unlimited supplier of sulfates, iron, manganese, lead and other elements to underground and surface water, which leads to low rates of self-rehabilitation of the hydrosphere in the mining areas.

Rybnikova L. S., Rybnikov P. A. Assessment of hydrosphere formation factors in nature-and-technology systems: A case-study of the upstream basin of the Tagil River in the Sverdlovsk Region. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2021;(5—2):257—272. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2021_52_0_257.

The studies were implemented in the framework of the Fundamental Research Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Topics 0405-2019-0005 and 0328-2019005 as per research plan for 2019–2021 and with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Grant No. 20-45-660014.

Rybnikova L. S.¹, Dr. Sci. (Geol. Mineral.), chief researcher of the laboratory of ecology of mining, Institute of mining, Ural branch RAS, 620219, Ekaterinburg, street mum’s-the Siberian, 58; luserib@mail.ru.
Rybnikov P. A.¹, Cand. Sci. (Geol. Mineral.), Leading Researcher, Head of the laboratory of Geoinformation and Digital Technologies in Subsurface Use, ribnikoff@yandex.ru;
¹ Institute of Mining, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia.

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