Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 15.2.
Conventional model for soil handling in mine site restoration schemes.
Ideally, the topsoil and subsoil are separated into separate or sequential stockpiles.
twice: into and out of storage. Second, space is required to store the soil.
Herethere is a trade-off between the depth of soil dump and the land area
required to store the soil. As a general rule, the deeper the soil store (and hence
the smaller the footprint) the poorer is the soil's retention of favourable
biophysical properties.
Stockpiling of any sort may reduce seed viability and soil physical, chemical
and biological fertility ( Johnson et al.
1991
; Schaffer et al.
2007
). To address
this, soil stripped from land prior to bauxite mining is often moved directly
to an area of land that has previously been mined and is ready to receive soil
