AUTHORS: Javier Menéndez, Jorge Loredo
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ABSTRACT: Even though it is regarded as a crucial economic activity worldwide, mining has a significant negative impact on environment. Due to its nature, especially opencast mining inevitably leads to serious degradation on ecological and aesthetic values of the landscape. Topography and drainage, air, soil and water quality, vegetation including forest ecosystems, noise levels and ground vibrations, human health and habitation can be listed as the typical parameters that are mainly affected by opencast mining activities. When the extraction of reserve is over, the altered landscape has to be reclaimed in order to relieve the damaging effects of opencast mining and restore the landscape and its immediate surroundings. Biomass as an energy source is an alternative to fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, and natural gas). Burning either fossil fuels or biomass releases carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. However, the plants that are the source of biomass capture a nearly equivalent amount of CO2 through photosynthesis while they are growing, which can make biomass a carbon-neutral energy source
KEYWORDS: Open pit mining, degraded mining land, renewable energy, short rotation, energy crops, biofuels
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