APPLICATION OF ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE UNDERGROUND GEOTECHNOLOGY AT THE DEPOSIT DEVELOPMENT IN PROTECTED AREAS

Abstract

The need to replenish the raw material base of rare metals actualizes the question of the expediency for involving the deposits or their sites located in the zone of impact on specially protected natural areas into the exploitation. Environmental safety of the deposit development in the protected areas can be achieved by using the underground method of development with full or partial location of the
processing plant under the ground and by using the mined out area of mined out stopes in the form of technological tanks for the disposal of the maximum amount of mining and processing wastes. On the example of development of the Kti-Teberdinskoe tungsten deposit located in close proximity to the Teberda state biosphere reserve, the paper
describes the technical possibility and defines the
economic expediency for application of environmentally safe underground geotechnology providing the construction of the mining and processing plant and gradual upward mining of reserves by mining systems with a dry or hydraulic stowing from waste rock of mining operations and slime of enrichment, ensuring the environmental safety and preservation of the surrounding area.