PhD Łukasz Gawor Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice Akademicka Street 2, 44-100 Gliwice, PL, phone +48 694 202 157, fax +48 32 237 22 90 Introduction In Polish coal industry the post-mining waste dumps are stored at the area of over 4000 ha in more than 250 objects. The Central Statistic Office of Poland reports that on the coal mining waste dumps there are disposed 762,8 millions Mg of wastes from hard coal mining, what represents 51% of all stored industrial wastes in Poland. According to various sources, it is estimated that for each 1 Mg of coal produced, there is 0,4 – 0,5 Mg of waste material. This material has to be deposited in the coal mining dumps. The production of hard coal in Poland in 2012 counted 79,2 million Mg. This allows to estimate that approximately 31,68 – 39,6 million Mg of waste material was produced in the year as well. In the past, due to the poor coal preparation technology the majority of this waste material was stored in coal mining waste dumps Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) USCB is situated in south-western part of Poland and covers in Polish part ca. 6100 km². Balance of coal production and coal mining wastes 1 Mg of coal ca. 0,4 Mg of coal wastes Production of coal and coal wastes Waste management Characteristics of mining wastes Petrographic composition of coal wastes in Upper Silesia Waste rock [%] Siltstones 40 – 98 Mudstones 2 – 40 Coal shales 2 – 25 Sandstones 0 – 33 Coal 3 – 10 Coal mining waste dumps in USCB According to the literature study in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin there are ca. 220 coal-mining waste dumps, covering over 4000 ha. The highest concentration of the dumps occurs in the central part of USCB e.g. in Zabrze (34 dumps), Jaworzno (26) Bytom (21 dumps), Ruda Śląska (12 dumps) and as well as in the south-western part of USCB e.g. Rybnik (13 dumps) and Jastrzebie- Zdroj and surroundings (9 dumps). The largest dumps cover the area of over 250 ha (e.g. Central Coal Mining Dumps in Knurów). Coal mining waste dumps in USCB Over 220 coal mining waste dumps (self study). There is stored over 700 mln Mg of waste material Surface: over 4000 ha. Upper Silesian Coal Basin Polish Geological Institute, 2001, changed Map of coal mining waste dumps in Polish and Czech part of USCB – over 250 objects (after Probierz, Marcisz, Sobolewski, 2013) Siewierz Toszek Tarnowskie Góry Bytom N Dąbrowa Górnicza Zabrze2 Gliwice Chorzów Sosnowiec Olkusz Katowice Mysłowice 1 Knurów Jaworzno Mikołów Łaziska Górne Trzebinia 5 Chrzanów Krzeszowice 3 Tychy Libiąż Rybnik Kraków Żory Pszów Oświęcim Wodzisław Śląski Zator Pszczyna Jastrzębie 4Zdrój Czechowice-Dziedzice CZ Bohumin Wadowice Karviná Andrychów Přívozská Myślenice Heřmanice Bielsko-Biała Ostrava Ema Skoczów Šverma Hrabůvka Lihovarská na Ostravici Cieszyn Frýdek-Mi stek Tŕinec PL Příbor Novy Jičin Frenśtát p. R. Rožnov p. R. SK 0 10 20 30 40 50km Coal mining waste dumps according to districts Districts: Zabrze 34 Jaworzno 26 Bytom 21 wodzisławski 19 Katowice 14 Rybnik 13 Ruda Śląska 12 będziński 11 Chorzów 7 Piekary 7 Sosnowiec 7 oświęcimski 6 0 10km gliwicki 5 Jastrzębie 4 Mysłowice 4 bielski 3 mikołowski 3 pszczyński 3 bieruńsko-lędziński 3 Gliwice 3 Siemianowice 3 Świętochłowice 3 Dąbrowa Górnicza 2 chrzanowski 2 cieszyński 1 rybnicki 1 Źródło: Opracowanie własne. tarnogórski 1 Tychy 1 Coal mining waste dumps in LSCB According to the literature study in the Lower Silesian Coal Basin there are 39 coal-mining waste dumps. The majority of the dumps (23) has volume of dozen – several thousands of m3. Total surface of coal mining waste dumps covers ca. 305 ha, the volume reaches 65 millions m3. The height of waste dumps changes in the range of 3 do 105 m. The largest waste dump in Wałbrzych area reaches 50 ha. Coal mining waste dumps in LSCB Coal mining waste dumps in Wałbrzych region. Legend: 1 – buildings, 2 – railway, 3- tunnels, 4 – roads, 5 – waste dumps, KW- Kotlina Wałbrzyska, OL-Obniżenie Leska [according to J. Wójcik]. Coal mining waste dumps in LSCB – objects with volume larger than 1 mln m3 Examples of coal mining waste dumps in LSCB .