• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.163-168
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• 2007

Ecological risk assessment(ERA) to 5 abandoned mine drainage was investigated by using chemical measurement and bioassay experiment. From the results of chemical analysis, the high concentration of heavy metals are detected in most area. The Arsenite were mostly detected in Songcheon, Nakdong, and Dukum abandoned mine area, and various heavy metals were highly dispersed in Nakdong area. The study area have also high biological toxicity, resulted from the bioassay based on WET(Whole Effluent Toxicity) test by using Vibrio fisheri, Selenastrum copricornutum, and Daphnia magna. The maximum toxicity was shown in the point where the mine waters start to flow. The sensitivity of toxicity by S. capricornutum was relatively high considering the values of toxicity in all samples, from 1.3 to 32.0 TU. The different sensitivities of toxicity recommends the use of battery system, resulted from at least two test species for bioassay or ecological risk assessment of mine drainage. Besides, the results showed high hazard quotient(i.e., greater than 1 HQ value indicating potentially significant toxic risks) with regard to abandoned mine drainage area in this study. On the other hand, the biological toxicity results were sharply decreased by attenuation along further distance from discharging of mine waters. Therefore, environmental parameters including the dilution factor, dissolved organic matter, and hardness should be considered when the remediation and ERA of abandoned mine drainage is planned.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.422-425
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• 2003

This study was carried out to apprehend the variation of quality of mine drainage in the abandoned Samtan coal mine. After closure of coal mine, although still pumping, water level in underground was raised to loom and the concentration of some elements such as Fe and Mn was elevated. At present, the worst pollution source in this area is too the acidic leachate drained from uncovered mine waste impoundment. The flow rate of mine drainage from the adit is ave. about 20,000t/d. If water were flooded and deteriorated due to stopping pumping, the impact of the mine drainage on the stream around the abandoned mine would be more severe. Therefore, It is considered that the prediction of water quality of mine drainage from the adit after stopping pumping will be very important with a view to establishing countermeasures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.19-21
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• 2001

The Shiheung mine was closed in 1972 and has been abandoned since then. Although some restoration work has been done, there still remain mine failings in and around the mine, posing a potential environmental hazard. Mine tailings and the porewater extracted from the tailing were investigated to see any evidence of elemental release and migration to adjacent groundwater and soil in the field. The pHs of the tailing range from 6.24 to 7.23. Calcite in the studied area seems to influence on such neutral pH range. Depth profile of mine tailing demonstrate elements have been leached and removed as a consequence of weathering during disposal. This is also supported by the findings from porewater analysis, corresponding the trends in the mine tailings. The concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn in the tailing porewater exceed the standard value of EPA for drinking water and this implies groundwater can be contaminated through infiltration of the porewaters, which ultimately will be discharged as leachate from the mine tailing. Groundwater samples collected near the mine area do not show high metal concentrations, except for Fe, which were detected over drinking water standard.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.371-377
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• 1997

This paper presents the geophysical applications to the environmenml problem in an abandoned mine area. We would like to focus our attention on the mapping of the soil contamination and the detection of the buried mine tailings. For mapping the soil contamination. measurements of both in-situ magnetic susceptibility (k) and terrain conductivity were carried out. In-situ magnetic susceptibilities of the contaminated soil due to the acid mine drainage show higher values than those of the uncontaminated area. However. those data do not show the correlation with the degree of the soil contamination observed on the surface. The least-squares fitted formula obtained with the measured insitu magnetic susceptibilities is $k=4.8207{\times}W^{0.6332}$, where W is the $Fe^{+2}$ weight percentage. This weight gives most effect to magnetic susceptibility of the soil. Lateral variations of the soil contamination in the shallow subsurface can be detected by the electrical conductivity distributions from EM induction survey. TDIP (Time Domain Induced Polarization) and EM induction surveys were conducted to detect the buried mine tailings. From the results of TDIP, the spatial zone, which shows high chargeability-low resistivity, is interpreted as the buried mine tailings. Therefore, it is concluded that it is possible to discriminate the spatial zone from the uncontaminated ground.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.325-328
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• 2005

To estimate presumptive local ground subsidence area near Abandoned Under ground Coal Mine(AUCM) at Samcheok city in Korea, the geological properties of existing ground subsidence area and the geophysical prospecting data were analyzed using GIS. The electrical resistivity survey and seismic reflection survey database were constructed from investigation reports and factors which are related with ground subsidence such as geological map, topological map, land use map, lineament map, groundwater level, RMR (Rock Mass Rating), mining tunnel map and slope database were constructed also to make a comparative study of each parameters. As a result of the spatial analysis of existing ground subsidence area, 9 major factors causing ground subsidence were extracted and a connection between the structure of underground and the ground subsidence was determined from the analysis of geophysical prospecting data. The estimation of presumptive ground subsidence area was performed using the correlation between the result from neural network analysis of 9 factors and the scrutiny of geophysical prospecting data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2020

Soil in mine waste-rock fields, and at the pithead, sediments and farmlands around an abandoned mine in the Chungcheong Province of South Korea were investigated to assess the distribution of metallic elements and to understand the scope of the pollution. Reddening was observed from the mine up to a distance of 61 m. Losses of waste rock around the mine were assessed over a section of 1800 ㎥. Yellowish precipitates on the bottom of a stream were identified as ferrihydrite and goethite. For anions, a mean sulfate ion level over 773.6 mg/L was found during August in the river water samples. Mine drainage at the site was shown to have a pH of 4.9 and a sulfate concentration of 1557.8 mg/L during the August rainy season. A possible cause of the metallic element contamination in the mine is waste-rock loss, because mine waste-rock is located on the slope in this area. In conclusion, the total soil area to be treated, based on the amount that exceeded the recommended Korean soil pollution levels, was assessed to be 10,297 ㎡.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.71-85
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• 2011

In Okdong coal mine abandoned area, every year large amount of mine wastes have been swept away due to heavy rains in summer. Because pH of coal-mine waste is in the early 4, plant naturally does not grow there due to unfavorable condition for growing plant. This study had an experiment to grow plant for 6 months using Mycorrhizae which can be adapted well in acid soil. As a result of Experiment, In the infected experiment pot, 90% of the plants survived but in case of uninfected experiment pot, only 25% were alive. From Growth Experiment, it appeared that average stem length increase (cm/month), average fresh weight increase ($g^{fw}/month$), average dry weight increase ($g^{dw}/month$) were increased by 60%, 21%, 31% respectively. Especially, Mycorrhizae plays an important role in providing nutrients and water when seeding are established. Mycorrhizae prevents death caused by lack of nutrients and water and helps growth and development of plant when seeding are established in the early stage. This study proved that Mycorrhizae is comparatively effective in plant growth and prevention of erosion in coal-mine abandoned area.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.43-53
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• 2011

Health risk assessments for the abandoned asbestos mine were usually performed with activity-based sampling (ABS) method, which was not a effective tool for indexing health risk on an exact small area of mine. A newly proposed potential index of health risk (PIHR) was applied with proper spatial determination of geographical information system (GIS) to assess quantitatively health risks. A new trial was applied to a certain abandoned mine in Boryong as follows: A high grade area of PIHR was estimated 7.8% of the whole area of the mine (about 27.3 ha). Based on US EPA IRIS (integrated risk information system) model considering lifetime excess cancer risk (LECR), the health risk assessment indicated that the high grade area increased from 3.0 ha through 12.9 ha to 19.5 ha with an increase of asbestos contents in soil from 0.36% (1E-04 level) through 0.1% (3E-05 level) to 0.04% (1E-05 level). These results can be effectively applied to determine reclamation area of the abandoned asbestos mine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.295-302
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• 2017

In this study, a new quantitative instrumentation and measurement standards applicable to the field of mining has been proposed to improve the problems of the current measurement practices that apply the measuring standards of the civil engineering field (road, railway, etc.). With the data coordination of the mine reclamation corporation, we collected data on ground subsidence in the abandoned mine area, and studied various techniques for establishing a new management reference value based on the manual measurement data measured in the field. As a result, new instrumentation and measurement standards is set up and proposed by using statistics like the average value, the third quartile, the 95% confidence, and the maximum value.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.86-94
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• 2002

This study was carried out to identify the relationship between naturally introduced vegetation on the abandoned coal mine lands and the surrounding forest, and to select the indigenous tree species for the revegetation of the real mine lands in Taeback, Kangwon Province, Korea. The apparent species in the surrounding forest of Sododong were 9 species of tree layer, 13 species of subtree layer, 23 species of shrub layer and 23 species of herb layer, respectively. The dominant species in Sarijae were 6 species of tree layer, 15 species of subtree layer, 31 species of shrub layer and 25 species of herb layer, respectively. The plant species in the abandoned real mine land were 31 species in Sododong and 30 species in Sarijae, respectively. The number of plant species in the abandoned coal mine land was smaller than the surrounding forest. The common species of the coal mine lands and the surrounding forest were 6 species(Betula schimidtii etc.) in Sododong and 4 species(B. costata etc.) in Sarijae. It was considered that the species in the coal mine lands introduced from the species of top layer in the surrounding forest. Especially, B. costata in Sarijae showed the edge effect which regenerates the vegetative community from the boundary area of coal mine land and surrounding forest. Natural revegetation in Sododong was also progressing by the invasion of tree species in surrounding forest, such as B. schmidtii. Consequently, natural revegetation in the disturbed coal mine lands may be related to the species composition of the surrounding forest.