Technologies of Hard Coal Mining Waste Management –Results of the FORESIGHT OGWK Project

Research in mineral resources management clearly indicate that more substances known as waste become mineral resources in new technologies. The common meaning of the word “waste” is replaced with the term “potential mineral resource” and most recently as “secondary resource”. This reflects both usage properties and potential benefits. Basing on statistical data (the end of 2011) the amount of waste produced by the economic sector in Poland is nearly 123,5 mil Mg. In this, hard coal mining waste constitute about 28 mil Mg, meaning nearly 23%. Additionally, it is estimated that nearly 480 mil Mg of such waste is deposited in the environment. The result of the data analysis is that around 80% of waste produced during exploitation and processing of minerals is – in order to avoid fees for dumping – used in economy. Only 30% of this is industrially used and almost 70% is applied in ground levelling, engineering works or in so called “ground constructions”. This way the abundance of potential mineral is irretrievably lost. The basic legal act for waste management issues is the Act from 10 July 2008 on extractive waste (Dz. U. Nr 138, poz. 865) adapting to the existing Polish law Directive 2006/21/EC. The aim of this Act is to prevent production of waste in extractive industry, diminishing their negative influence on the environment and people’s health. The major aim of the project “Foresight in priority and innovative technologies of hard coal mining waste management” is identification of leading technologies in mining waste management of primary meaning, as their development in next 20 years in Poland will be a priority as well as creating scenario of their development through applying systematized research methodology. The project is conducted by the consortium including Institute of Mechanised Construction and Rock Mining, Silesian Technical University in Gliwice and AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow. The article presents current situation of hard coal mining waste management in Poland, including criteria of their economic usage. It also presents the diagnosis of current state of development in economic management of hard coal waste technologies, defines evaluation criteria of innovativeness of currently applied technological solutions, provides SWOT analysis results on institutional and technological level, scenarios for the development of innovative technologies for utilisation of hard coal mining waste and future research and development work