The extrac­tion of min­er­al resources such as coal, oil, or ores can sig­nif­i­cant­ly dam­age the envi­ron­ment. How­ev­er, through deposit recla­ma­tion, it is pos­si­ble to restore these dis­turbed areas and return them to a nat­ur­al state. Deposit recla­ma­tion is an impor­tant stage fol­low­ing min­er­al extrac­tion, enabling the restora­tion of dam­aged nat­ur­al envi­ron­ments. The choice of recla­ma­tion approach depends on the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the deposit, its geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion, and envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors. A com­bi­na­tion of dif­fer­ent recla­ma­tion types can ensure opti­mal restora­tion results. This is an impor­tant step in pre­serv­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty and cre­at­ing sus­tain­able nat­ur­al envi­ron­ments for future gen­er­a­tions.

Accord­ing to Arti­cle 166 of the Land Code of Ukraine, recla­ma­tion of dis­turbed lands is defined as a комплекс of orga­ni­za­tion­al, tech­ni­cal, and biotech­no­log­i­cal mea­sures aimed at restor­ing the soil cov­er, improv­ing the con­di­tion, and increas­ing the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of dis­turbed lands. Lands that have under­gone changes in relief struc­ture, eco­log­i­cal con­di­tion of soils and par­ent rocks, as well as hydro­log­i­cal regime as a result of min­ing, geo­log­i­cal explo­ration, con­struc­tion, and oth­er activ­i­ties are sub­ject to recla­ma­tion. For recla­ma­tion of such lands, soil removed dur­ing min­ing, geo­log­i­cal explo­ration, con­struc­tion, and oth­er works is used by apply­ing it to low-pro­duc­tiv­i­ty areas or areas with­out soil cov­er.

Stages of land reclamation

The process of recla­ma­tion of dis­turbed lands can be divid­ed into sev­er­al stages. In prac­tice, it is rec­om­mend­ed to dis­tin­guish three main stages: prepara­to­ry, min­ing-tech­ni­cal, and bio­log­i­cal.

Prepara­to­ry stage:
Sur­vey and clas­si­fi­ca­tion of dis­turbed lands and lands planned to be dis­turbed.
Study of the prop­er­ties of over­bur­den rocks and their clas­si­fi­ca­tion in terms of suit­abil­i­ty for bio­log­i­cal recla­ma­tion.
Deter­mi­na­tion of recla­ma­tion direc­tions and meth­ods.
Prepa­ra­tion of fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies and tech­ni­cal work­ing projects for recla­ma­tion.

Min­ing-tech­ni­cal stage, also known as the engi­neer­ing or tech­ni­cal stage of recla­ma­tion:
Selec­tive removal, stor­age, and preser­va­tion of over­bur­den rocks suit­able for bio­log­i­cal recla­ma­tion, includ­ing the fer­tile soil lay­er.
Selec­tive for­ma­tion of dumps from over­bur­den rocks.
Plan­ning and cov­er­ing of the lev­eled sur­face with a fer­tile soil lay­er or poten­tial­ly fer­tile over­bur­den rocks.
Back­fill­ing and lev­el­ing of deformed sur­faces such as col­laps­es, karst sink­holes, and oth­ers.
Con­struc­tion of access roads.
Imple­men­ta­tion of land-recla­ma­tion and ero­sion-con­trol mea­sures.

Bio­log­i­cal stage:
Plant­i­ng var­i­ous species of plants, includ­ing trees, shrubs, and herba­ceous plants.
Plant care, irri­ga­tion, fer­til­iza­tion, and pest pro­tec­tion.
Stim­u­la­tion of plant growth and bio­di­ver­si­ty devel­op­ment.
Mon­i­tor­ing and assess­ment of recla­ma­tion effec­tive­ness.

Each recla­ma­tion stage is impor­tant and requires the imple­men­ta­tion of spe­cif­ic actions to achieve suc­cess­ful results. Prop­er plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of recla­ma­tion mea­sures con­tribute to the return of dis­turbed lands to a nat­ur­al state and the restora­tion of their nat­ur­al func­tions.

Directions of land reclamation

The most com­mon direc­tions of recla­ma­tion include:

Agri­cul­tur­al recla­ma­tion may include:
Appli­ca­tion of a soil lay­er for grow­ing grain or fruit and berry crops.
Use with­out apply­ing a soil lay­er pro­vid­ed that poten­tial­ly fer­tile over­bur­den rocks are avail­able for hay­fields.

For­est recla­ma­tion includes:
Estab­lish­ment of forests on suit­able rocks.
Bur­ial of tox­ic rocks under a lay­er of poten­tial­ly fer­tile mate­r­i­al.

Water-man­age­ment recla­ma­tion allows the cre­ation of reser­voirs and arti­fi­cial lakes.

Con­struc­tion recla­ma­tion involves the use of lands for indus­tri­al or civ­il con­struc­tion.

Detailed rec­om­men­da­tions on land recla­ma­tion meth­ods are described in recla­ma­tion projects in accor­dance with applic­a­ble reg­u­la­to­ry doc­u­ments.