Properties of Soils of Abandoned Coal Mine Industrial Areas (Primorsky Krai, Russia)

Lipovtsy coal field mine №4 processed north-western reserves of Lipovtsyfield in Primorski Krai (Russia). In 1997, the mine was declared unprofitableand was abandoned by natural flooding with no arrangement of mine waterdischarge and in 2005 it was fully flooded. The main sources of pollution inthe studied area are spoil heaps (mine wastes), underspoil filtering waters andmine waters which are being discharged on the surface after finishing of “hydraulicfunnel” artificial support. The study of technogenic landscape ofabandoned mine industrial area showed that its morphologic form is dominatedby spoil heaps. Soils located near mine waste body differ from benchmarksoils by chemical properties and size distribution. The influence of activehydrochemical mine and drainage water flows is the reason of theabove-mentioned variation in soil properties. Results showed that, there exista high correlation ratios between chemical composition of mine waters andwater extracts from soil: Between the alkalinity of mine waters and electricalconductivity of soil water extracts (r = 0.73), between mine water iron contentand pH of soil water extract (r = −0.56), between the solid residue of minewaters and electrical conductivity of soil water extracts (r = 0.72), between themine waters calcium content and electrical conductivity of soil water extracts(r = −0.75), between the alkalinity of mine waters and silicon dioxide contentof soil water extracts (r = 0.61), between the mineralization of mine watersand chrome content of soil water extracts (r = 0.73).