Serbia: 24 million cubic meters of mining waste, mostly in Raska, Ljubovija and Krupanj

Serbia has created a cadastre of mining waste that records 250 sites with waste from abandoned mines. The cadastre is an important ecological step as this waste is put under control. It will later contain data from more than 200 active mines.

During the development of the Mining Waste Cadastre over the past three years, experts have visited 250 sites of abandoned mining pits, landfills and quarries.

And because of the potential environmental impact, only 41 sites required detailed chemical and geomechanical analysis for remediation.

“These 41 sites contain exactly 80 percent of all mining waste that is located in the territory of 21 municipalities,” said Tanja Stojanovic, head of the Project Management Department at the Ministry of Mining and Energy.

These are, as she said, Raska, Zajecar, Ljubovija, Krupanj, Aleksinac, Majdapek, outskirts of Bor …

“As far as stability is concerned, there is only one landfill located in the Raska area, as it has the potential to erode and settle,” says Zoran Stevanovic, advisor to the director of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in Bor.

Creating a Cadastre costed 2.1 million euros and 90 percent of the funding was provided by the European Union. It is estimated that there are 24 million cubic meters of mining waste. It could not be adequately managed because it was not known in whose property the abandoned mines were.

“They either don’t exist or have left or have legal successors that are hard to come by, so the European Union has recognized the need to finance that part of the work; to visit the sites and make a list of those sites, characterize that waste and enter it into the mining waste cadastre, ”says Boris Ilijevski, project manager of the EU Delegation to Serbia.

Stevanovic said that it is the obligation of active mines to take care of their landfills.

“It is in the European Union as well with us the obligation of owners who exploit the mines and who have those facilities that dispose of the mining waste,” Stevanovic said.

The mining waste cadastre will also be available electronically on the website of the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Source: rts.rs

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