Public presentation of Cadastre of Mining Waste project to be held on October 24

A public presentation of the Cadastre of Mining Waste project will be organized on October 24 in Raška in southwestern Serbia. The three-year project is implemented by the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy with the financial support of the EU.

The Cadastre of Mining Waste project is aimed at further developing and improving the mining waste management system in Serbia, through the creation of the Cadaster of Mining Waste database.

After the project team visited 250 abandoned mining waste sites in 2017 and reported on the waste types and quantities, the Ministry of Mining and Energy selected 41 locations for further research and analyses due to their possible impact on the environment and the safety and health of people.

The public presentation will showcase the project and the scope and status of works, including information about the future cadaster, which will be available online.

41 locations selected for further examination

In the next phase, the project will investigate and analyze 41 mining waste sites in detail. These sites were selected so as to assess their potential serious impact on the environment and human beings. The selected sites are in the following municipalities: Čajetina (4), Nova Varoš (2), Raška (7), Krupanj, Loznica, Prijepolje, Knjaževac, Zaječar (2), Crna Trava, Surdulica, Mandanpek (3), Voždovac, Kučevo, Aleksinac (2), Mali Zvornik, Kragujevac grad, Boljevac, Zaječar, Brus, Ljubovija (3), Žagubica-Bor and Dimitrovgrad.

The amount of waste in the selected sites accounts for 90% of the entire mining waste on all the visited abandoned mining waste sites (250 locations in total).

Results from investigation of these 41 locations will be presented in a report containing detailed data for each site – including site description, results from chemical and geotechnical analyses and an assessment of the impact on the environment (in particular, the effects mining waste has on the quality of groundwater and surface water and soil) and possible effects on human health.

The EUR 2.1 million project is 90% funded by the EU and 10% by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The project consultant is a consortium of German companies Plejades GmbH Independent Experts and DMT in cooperation with the local partner, the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bor.