Affiliation:
1. School of Mineral Resources Engineering, Technical University of Crete, 731 00 Chania, Greece
2. School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Department of Mechanics, National Technical University of Athens, 157 80 Athens, Greece
Abstract
The island of Cyprus is famous for its rich deposits of volcanic mineralisation that yielded large quantities of copper, gold, and silver. The abandonment of the waste material in several dump sites during exploitation severely impacted the environment. A significant environmental issue is the acid mine drainage from the hydration of large barren piles that cover these old open pit mines. However, abandoned piles are still enriched in precious metals and perhaps even rare earth metals. These dump sites may form a new possible “deposit”, which may attract companies’ economic interest. Removing the stockpiles can be cost-effective, since the secondary extraction process is profitable, in addition to the benefits from the restoration of the natural environment. The case study considered here pertains to the North Mine of Mathiatis, where unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images were used to create not only a 3D topographic map but also to locate these dump sites and finally to create a 3D model of one of these waste stockpiles. The methodology proposed here to locate dump sites by using point cloud data (x, y, z, RGB) and high-resolution images provided by UAVs will assist in the secondary mining of old open-pit mines by defining the bottom and top stockpile surfaces. The reconstructed 3D waste piles can also be used to calculate the volume they occupy and other parameters, such as the gradient of slopes, that are essential for estimating the cost of possible restoration. The proposed methodology was applied to the stockpile STK1 with the most available drillhole data, and its volume was estimated at 56,000 m3, approximately.
Reference48 articles.
1. Supergene Alteration, Environmental Impact and Laboratory Scale Acid Water Treatment of Cyprus-Type Ore Deposits: Case Study of Mathiatis and Sha Abandoned Mines;Galanopoulos;Geochem. Explor. Environ. Anal.,2018
2. Native Plants for the Remediation of Abandoned Sulphide Mines in Cyprus: A Preliminary Assessment;Stylianou;J. Environ. Manag.,2020
3. Mineralogical Controls on Storage of As, Cu, Pb and Zn at the Abandoned Mathiatis Massive Sulphide Mine, Cyprus;Edwards;Miner. Mag.,2005
4. Stylianou, M., Tsiftes, K., Gavriel, I., Kostarelos, K., Demetriou, C., and Papaioannou, A. (2014, January 19–21). Environmental Impacts of Abandoned Sulphide Mines—The Example of Mathiatis Mine in Cyprus. Proceedings of the SYMBIOSIS International Conference, Athens, Greece.
5. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UaV) Photogrammetry Technology for Dynamic Mining Subsidence Monitoring and Parameter Inversion: A Case Study in China;Dawei;IEEE Access,2020