Ecological Assessment of Mining Areas at the Karabash Copper-Pyrite Ore Deposit Using Spectral Indices
L. S. Rybnikova, P. A. Rybnikov, D. N. Khasanov
Institute of Mining, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Keywords: Spectral indices, time series, mining areas, satellite images, ecological condition, Landsat, Karabash copper ore province
Abstract
The article studies ecological observations over disturbed land in the Karabash copper ore province in the north of the South Ural using archival Landsat images taken in the period from 1989 to 2024. For the efficient evaluation of the environmental components within the limits of the Sak-Elga river watershed (basin of the Miass river), the spectral indices were used: NDVI for vegetation mantle; Fe-indices for manmade soil; AMWI for water bodies. The variation in NDVI revealed a general trend of recovery of vegetation cover in the area of 8.5 km2, including reclamation sites of tailings storages. In the plain flood area of the Sak-Elga river and on the west shoulder of the Gold Mountain, some large areas with traces of pollution with sulfide-bearing waste still remain. Some prospective minerals pointed at by the spectral indices in the polluted areas are identified. The total area of contamination because of sulfide weathering presumably reduced from 10.8 to 7.5 km2. The highest water pollution indexes by AMWI were revealed in the Karabash pond (0.08 in 1989 and 0.75 in 2024), Olkhovka pond (0.67 in 1989 and 0.34 in 2024) and in a hydrobotanical pond (0.24 in 2020 and 0.61 in 2024).
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