Title: Experimental study for the assessment of suitability for vegetation growth on coal mine overburden

Authors: Karra Ram Chandar; Vikas Chaitanya; Mavinakere Eshwaraiah Raghunandan

Addresses: Department of Mining Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore – 575025, India ' National Institute of Technology Karnataka, P.O. Srinivasnagar, Mangalore 575025, India ' School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, 47500 Malaysia

Abstract: Owing to increased production and productivity of opencast coal mines, large amount of waste rock is removed and stacked in the form of waste dumps. Positive utilisation of such waste rock not only saves considerable dumping land but also reduces problem of maintaining stable and environmentally friendly dumps. One of the major utilisation of waste rock is to use it for vegetation. Therefore a systematic investigation to study the fertile characteristics of overburden waste rock for vegetation was conducted. Waste rock samples collected from an opencast coal mine dump in South India were used in the laboratory experiments. Observations showed the suitability of mine wastes for vegetation when supplemented with additives/nutrients - bottom ash, fly ash, lime stone powder and secondary sludge from sewage treatment plants (STPs) were considered for this purpose as additives. Results suggest that the mine-overburden supplemented with sewage waste (atleast 25% by volume) to be suitable for effective vegetation.

Keywords: coal mine overburden; opencast mining; mining land restoration; land reclamation; additives; waste rock; vegetation growth; coal mines; mine dumps; India; mine waste; bottom ash; fly ash; limestone powder; secondary sludge; sewage treatment plants; STPs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2015.071173

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2015 Vol.6 No.3, pp.218 - 233

Received: 05 Jun 2014
Accepted: 06 May 2015
Published online: 13 Aug 2015 *

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