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Mining and Its Environmental Impacts

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Environmental Geology

  • 1350 Accesses

  • Originally published in
  • R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 2012

Glossary

Biota:

All life forms.

Decommissioning:

Removal of something from active status.

Eco-efficiency analysis:

Analysis of realizing the concept of creating goods and services with fewer resources and less waste and pollution.

Exploitation:

Act of using something (mineral resources) for any purpose.

Exploration:

Process of finding mineral resources for the purpose of mining.

Karst:

A geological feature in relatively soluble rocks, e.g., limestone, where sinkholes, caves, and similar hollows are formed above and below ground.

Lithosphere:

The outer rocky shell of planet Earth, comprising the oceanic and continental crust and part of the upper Earth mantle.

Long-term effect:

A change that will last or have an influence over a long period of time.

Nachhaltigkeit:

German for “sustainability,” first used in 1713 in Germany.

Open-pit excavation:

Process of extracting minerals from surface deposits.

Recultivation:

Making raw mineral soils (brownfields) fertile again through bioengineering...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mineralogy and Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany

    Jörg Matschullat & Jens Gutzmer

Authors
  1. Jörg Matschullat
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  2. Jens Gutzmer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. PELA GeoEnvironmental, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    James W. LaMoreaux

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Matschullat, J., Gutzmer, J. (2012). Mining and Its Environmental Impacts. In: LaMoreaux, J. (eds) Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8787-0_205

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