Nanofillers, by virtue of their minute size, when incorporated inside a matrix, have the capability to enhance the physical parameters of the complex matrix. Graphene, the wonder material of the twenty-first century, has established itself in the field of nanofillers. However, it still has yet to find its way into the mining industry. This review paper focuses on a novel way of attaining sustainability in mining methodology using graphene as a nanofiller. The implementations can be subdivided into three categories based on their impact—economic, environment, and safety. To achieve economic welfare in mine methodology; Graphene is used to enhance the productivity of machinery. Electric-Heavy Earth Moving Machinery using LiFePO4/Graphene hybrid cathode battery is not only an ideal replacement to fossil-powered vehicles considering the contribution of environmental strain but also a more-efficient model than Electric-Heavy Earth Moving Machinery using conventional Lithium Ion Phosphate Battery batteries. Heavy Earth Moving Machinery having tires of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber/Graphene composite would have better efficacy and longer life cycle than the conventional ones. Graphene derivative Magnetic Graphene Oxide is used to achieve environmental welfare by its implication as an additive in the effluent treatment plant for its capability of removing heavy metal ions and negative-strain bacteria from the mine water. To improve the safety standards of the mine workers, graphene and its derivatives have environmental implications to constitute a safer surrounding concerning precarious situations due to the unpredictable behavior of geomaterials. Graphene can assist in constituting a more economical and reliable slope model as incorporating graphene induces restructuration and improvement in strength parameters. This enables a miner to extract more minerals in tranquility from the resources as there is an increase in compaction and shear strength. A combination of a graphene sheet and auxetic graphene foam can be placed over the blast holes to not only restrict the trajectory of the fly rocks but also attenuate some part of the explosive energy. The objective of this coagulation is to upgrade the traditional practice by replacing the conventional products, and the effect is observed in the form of achieving sustainability in the mine.

Coupled thermo-hydraulic-mechanical (THM) processes are essential for the long-term performance of deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. In this study, a numerical sensitivity analysis was performed to analyze the effect of rock properties on THM responses after the execution of the heater test at the Kamaishi mine in Japan. The TOUGHFLAC simulator was applied for the numerical simulation assuming a continuum model for coupled THM analysis. The rock properties included in the sensitivity study were the Young’s modulus, permeability, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion coefficients of crystalline rock, rock salt, and clay. The responses, i.e., temperature, water content, displacement, and stress, were measured at monitoring points in the buffer and near-field rock mass during the simulations. The thermal conductivity had an overarching impact on THM responses. The influence of Young’s modulus was evident in the mechanical behavior, whereas that of permeability was noticed through the change in the temperature and water content. The difference in the THM responses of the three rock type models implies the importance of the appropriate characterization of rock mass properties with regard to the performance assessment of the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

It is essential that continual assessments of the impact of mine-derived water as a long-lasting burden on freshwater environments. Abundance-based evaluations of benthic macroinvertebrates have been conducted to evaluate anthropogenic disturbances and devise policies to reduce their impact. In this study, the status of a stream habitat was evaluated based on the body length and biomass weight of benthic macroinvertebrates of the family Baetidae. Following the renewal of the mining water treatment plant, the abundance of Baetidae assemblages recovered to a level comparable to that of a reference site. However, relatively low values were found for both body length and biomass weight in Baetidae species inhabiting the reddened streambed area, suggesting that the habitat has not yet been completely recovered despite the recovery of the abundance of the Baetidae assemblages. Therefore, continuous investigation and evaluation of this disturbed stream are necessary until their growth conditions of the habitat have functionally recovered

Deep geological disposal is generally accepted to be the most practical approach to handling radioactive wastes. Bentonite has been considered as a buffer material in deep geological disposal repositories (DGR) for high-level radioactive wastes. Evaluating the effect of short-term bentonite alteration on EBS performance has limitations in safety assessment over thousands of years. Information on bentonite characteristics under various conditions obtained from natural systems can be used to evaluate long-term safety of bentonite buffer. The purpose of this study was to investigate mineralogical and physicochemical characteristics of bentonite in the Naah mine located in Yangnam-myeon, Gyeongju-si for a natural analogue of the bentonite barrier in DGR. A total of 15 samples were collected at regular intervals from the bentonite layer and andesitic lapilli tuff (i.e., parent rock) at the boundary with the bentonite layer. The bentonite layer is located at a depth of about 1 m below the ground surface. Each sample was separated into particles < < 75 μm and particles < 2 μm through grinding and sedimentation processes. The separated subsamples were characterized mineralogically and physiochemically using various analytic techniques. Bentonite samples have a similar SiO2/Al2O3 ratio to the parent rock and a lower (Na+K)/Si ratio than the parent rock, indicating depletion of alkali components during bentonitization. The parent rock and bentonite samples have similar mineral composition (i.e., quartz, feldspars, opal-cristobalite-tridymite and montmorillonite). Results of XRD analysis on the randomly distributed particles < 2 μm indicate that bentonite is mostly composed of Ca-montmorillonite, which is a typical dioctahedral smectite. Results of FTIR and VNIR analysis indicate that montmorillonite contained in bentonite is Al-dioctahedral montmorillonite, and Al is substituted with Mg in some octahedron units. The mineralogical and physicochemical characteristics are similar regardless of sampling location. These results suggest that bentonite potentially exposed to weathering, located near the ground surface, has hardly altered.

This paper proposes a solution to the out-of band oscillation signal and in-band low transmitter power output that occurrs during the low-temperature operation test for the new mine detector GPR signal transmission and reception module. Tests were performed by applying the optimal values of capacitors and inductors through circuit analysis simulation under the limited space, as a result, it was confirmed that the gain and return loss were improved at all-band thereby preventing oscillation signal and low transmitter power output.

With the enhancement of the spatial resolution of satellite imagery (1 m or less), the satellite image analysis has been considered as the indispensable means for remote sensing of nuclear proliferation activities in the restricted access areas such as North Korea. Notably, in the case of an open-pit uranium mine, e.g. the Pyongsan uranium mine, the mining activity can be presumed if detecting the location and extent uranium tailing piles near shafts within temporal images. Several studies have researched on the target detection for minerals of interest such as limestone and coal to evaluate the economic activities by utilizing similarity measures, e.g., a spectral angle mapper and a spectral information divergence (SID). Thus, this paper presented a systematic change detection methodology for monitoring the uranium mining activity in the Pyongsan uranium mine with a similarity measure of SID. The proposed methodology using the target detection results consists of the following five steps. The first step is to acquire stereo images of areas of interest for change detection. The second step is to preprocess the stereo images as following measures: (i) the QUick Atmospheric Correction and the image-to-image registration with ENVI and (ii) the Gram-Schmidt pansharpening. The third step is to extract spectral information for minerals of interest, i.e., uranium tailing piles, by sampling pixels within the reference image. It is based on the satellite analysis report for the Pyongsan uranium mine by CSIS, which specified the location of the uranium tailing piles. As the fourth step, the target detection for uranium tailing piles was performed through the similarity measure of SID between the extracted spectral information and the spectral reflectance of the image. In the fifth step, the change detection was processed using the multivariate alteration detection algorithm, which compares the target detection results by canonical correlation analysis. Furthermore, this paper evaluated the performance of the proposed methodology with the change detection accuracy assessment index, i.e., the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve. In conclusion, this paper suggests the systematic change detection methodology utilizing time series analysis of target detection for uranium tailing piles, which can save time and cost for humans to interpret large amounts of satellite information at the restricted access areas. As future works, the feasibility of the proposed methodology would be investigated by analyzing distribution of minerals of interest regarding nuclear proliferation at Yongbyon, which has the historical events of suspicious nuclear activities.

최근 들어 기후변화로 인한 태풍의 강도는 강력해졌다. 광산지역의 광미와 폐석은 수해로 인해 환경에 악영향을 미쳤을 것으로 추정된다. 강릉지역은 3,693호(1936), 루사(2002), 매미(2003), 메기(2004) 등의 국내 최대 태풍의 영향은 받았다. 이번 연구는 태풍으로 인한 수해 이후 하천을 따라 그 주변에 높은 농도의 비소가 검출된 사례를 기초로 하였 다. 환경피해 관련 법은 오염 원인자의 책임을 명확히 하고 있지만, 잠재적인 자연재해 지역에서는 세심한 적용이 필요 하다. 이러한 지역에서 자연재해의 영향을 최소화하기 위해서 관련 법들의 개선과 연계가 필요하다. 이 연구가 하류 지 역에서 혼재된 오염물질 대응에 도움이 되길 기대한다.

Recently, environmental DNA (eDNA)-based metabarcoding approaches have been proposed to evaluate the status of freshwater ecosystems owing to various advantages, including fast and easy sampling and minimal habitat disruption from sampling. Therefore, as a case study, we applied eDNA metabarcoding techniques to evaluate the effects of an abandoned mine land located near a headwater stream of Nakdonggang River, South Korea, by examining benthic macroinvertebrate diversity and compared the results with those obtained using the traditional Surber-net sampling method. The number of genera was higher in Surbernet sampling (29) than in the eDNA analysis (20). The genus richness tended to decrease from headwater to downstream in eDNA analysis, whereas richness tended to decrease at sites with acid-sulfated sediment areas using Surber-net sampling. Through cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling, the sampling sites were differentiated into two parts: acid-sulfated and other sites using Surber-net sampling, whereas they were grouped into the two lowest downstream and other sites using eDNA sampling. To evaluate freshwater ecosystems using eDNA analysis in practical applications, it is necessary to constantly upgrade the methodologies and compare the data with field survey methods.

1950년에 대한석탄공사가 설립되면서 증산체제를 갖추고 30여 년간 우리나라의 주요 에너지자원으로서 산업과 국가경제 발전을 견인해왔던 석탄산업은 석탄산업합리화법에 따라 1989년부터 구조조정이 시작되어 많은 탄광들이 생산을 중단하게 되었다. 이에 따라 폐탄 퇴적지와 반출하지 않은 석탄 보관장들이 곳곳에 산재하게 되었고, 갱도와 퇴적지 등에서 발생한 폐수와 함께 산림 및 계류․하천의 환경을 훼손하는 원인이 되었다. 한국광해관리공단에서는 1990년부터 폐탄 퇴적지에 대한 복구사업을 추진하여왔는데, 초기에는 폐탄 퇴적지에 대하여 전면복토를 실시하지 않아 복구지가 재훼손되기도 하였으며, 1995년부터는 전면 복토를 비롯한 다양한 공법을 활용하여 복구사업을 추진해 왔다. 그러나 지반을 안정시키고, 복토 후에 싸리류를 파종 하고 교목류를 보완 식재하는 경우가 대부분이어서 생태적 복원에는 미치지 못하였다. 본 연구에서는 한국광해관리공단에서 시행한 폐탄광지 복구사업지 가운데 기존의 사업내용과 다르게 생태적 복원 수준에 접근한 사례를 조사 분석하여 성과와 문제점 및 향후 과제 등을 제시함으로써, 폐탄광지 복원사업의 추진과 발전을 위한 자료를 제공하고자 한다. 대상지는 충북 보은군 마로면 원정리 산50-3에 위치하며, 일제시대부터 운영된 석탄광으로서 해방 후 채광이 중단되었다가 1964년에 채광인가를 받아 1981년부터 2007 년까지 광구면적 364ha에서 석탄 1,617,662ton을 생산하고, 2009년에 폐광되었다. 폐광 당시 광업소의 고철, 석탄 부산물(재선탄, 약 1만3천톤)을 전국광산노동조합연맹에 기부하기로 되어 있어서, 연맹의 동의 없이 재선탄을 무단 훼손 또는 반출할 수 없었기 때문에 현장에 적치된 재선탄의 유실에 따른 광해발생이 우려되었다. 대상지의 복원배경은 방치된 폐시설물을 철거하여 안전사고 및 범죄 발생을 예방하고, 훼손된 산림을 복원하여 광산지역 주민의 생활환경개선 기대에 부응하기 위한 것이다. 복원사업은 석탄광에 대한 산림조사용역(2010.6.23.~2010.12.19), 폐시 설물 철거사업 추진(2010.12.28.~2011.05.13. 선탄장, 사무 실, 목욕탕, 압축기실, 권양기실, 자재창고 등 17동 철거), 시설부지와 재선탄 석탄 적치장에 대한 산림복원사업 추진(2011.12.05.~2013.12.18.)의 과정을 거쳐 추진되었다. 복원사업의 내용은 먼저 훼손된 임야의 원지형을 복원한 다음 비탈면과 평탄지에 전면 복토를 시행하고 식생을 도입 하였다. 복토두께는 평탄지는 60㎝, 비탈면은 30㎝로서 복토용 토사의 총량은 24,818㎥가 반입되었다. 지형복원을 위해 폐탄 적치장을 크게 3단으로 조성하고, 콘크리트 축대･ 돌흙막이･산돌쌓기･떼단쌓기로 비탈면을 안정시켰으며, 콘크리트 수로와 U형풀륨관 수로를 설치하였다. 식생복원을 위해 비탈면과 평탄지 50,031㎡에 벌노랑이･억새･참싸리･비수리를 파종하고, 평탄지에는 굴참나무 1,485본과 소나무 11,204본을 식재하였다. 특히, 소나무는 1.5m×1.5m 간격으로 ha당 3,000본을 균열식재하였다. 복원사업 완료 후 5년이 경과한 현재 식재한 소나무는 1-2m 정도 성장하였고, 비탈면 소단에 식재한 소나무의 일부는 싸리나무와의 수고경쟁에서 우세하여 양호한 성장을 보이고 있다. 싸리나무를 파종한 비탈면에서는 싸리나무가 번무한 상태이고, 억새를 파종한 곳에서는 억새가 군락을 형성하고 있다. 복원지에 외부에서 이입된 식물로는 최상부에 물오리나무가 소규모 군락을 형성하였고, 오동나무･낙엽송･은사시나무･갯버들･굴피나무･싸리나무･아카시나 무･비수리･칡･망초･개망초･여뀌･쑥･강아지풀･달맞이꽃 등이다. 향후 복원효과의 정밀조사와 유지관리방안 등에 관한 추가연구를 진행할 계획이다.

A nepticulid leaf-mine ichnofossil is described on the basis of a fossil leaf of Fagus from the early Miocene Geumgwangdong Formation (ca. 21–14 million years ago) in Pohang basin. This mine trace is characterized by a linear-blotch type with clear centric frass trail of closely and randomly dispersed pellets filling the mine width in early stage. We found traces of possible egg case and exit slit from the fossil. These features are most consistent with those produced by Nepticulidae. Our record represents the only reliably-identified nepticulid leaf-mine on Fagus in Miocene. Nepticulid leaf-mines in Miocene and the leaf-mine fossils from the Geumgwangdong Formation are briefly reviewed.

Lepidoptera, one of the major herbivore groups on terrestrial ecosystems, have evolved various feeding habits on theirhostplants. Diversification of feeding habits has led to their success in the extant fauna. However, there have been limitedstudies scrutinizing evolutionary patterns of such diversification (Kaila et al., 2011; Regier et al., 2015; Sohn et al., 2016).Leaf-mining is the major form of lepidopteran endophagy, occurring in at least 34 families (Hering, 1951). Leaf miningis considered a primitive trait in Lepidoptera because it characterizes the basal (non-ditrysian) lineages, while the derivedDitrysia and Macrolepidoptera trend strongly toward external feeding (Connor & Taverner, 1997). In contrast, internalfeeding is restricted to relatively derived lineages in other insect orders. This contrasting pattern may be a key for understandingthe evolutionary history of Lepidoptera. We discuss this issue based on two lepidopteran leaf-mine fossils discovered lately.

드론을 이용한 신뢰성 있는 항공자력탐사 수행을 위해서 자력탐사 시스템과 드론 시스템을 구성하여 철광산 지 역 자력 탐사에 적용하였다. 드론에 실리는 자력탐사 시스템은 Bartington사의 플럭스게이트 자력계 Mag639를 센서로 사용하고, A/D convertor를 이용하여 태블릿PC에 자력값이 저장되도록 구성하였다. 드론의 비행 컨트롤 모듈로는 확장 성이 좋은 Pixhawk를 사용하였고, 적재 중량(Payload) 3 kg, 최대 중량 적재 시 15분 동안 비행이 가능하도록 구성하였 다. 드론의 자기장 간섭 범위 측정 실험을 통해 드론에 의한 자기장 간섭효과를 제거하였고, 정확한 위치 정보 확보를 위해 RTK GPS를 적용하였다. 정확한 위치정보를 토대로 동일한 측선에 대해서 고도를 변경하여 두 번 측정해서 자력 변화율 자료를 확보하였다. 또한 지형 정보를 사용하여 지형을 따라 비행하는 비행경로를 설정함으로써 지형 효과를 없 앨 수 있었다. 드론 기반 항공자력탐사 시스템을 통해 획득된 자력자료는 Geometrics사의 핵자력계 G-858을 이용해 동 일 지역에서 획득한 자료와 양상이 일치함을 확인하였고, 이를 통해 드론 기반 항공자력탐사 시스템을 이용한 탐사 자 료에 대한 신뢰성을 확보할 수 있었다.

We describe an early angiosperm and a leaf mine ichnofossil from the Lower Cretaceous Potomac Group of Virginia, USA. The descriptions are based on a fossil leaf that was first reported in 1895 but identified as a fragment of a fossil fern. Leaf architectural features and sedimentological context indicate that this leaf was produced by an herbaceous eudicot angiosperm, possibly associated with Ranunculales. The leaf mine is a full depth linear-blotch mine with frass, a trace of puparium inside the blotch mine section, and feeding/oviposition-related puncture marks. The features of the mine are most consistent with those produced by agromyzid flies. This fossil extends the record of agromyzid flies by about 40 million years ago. This fossil provides evidence that agromyzid flies or their ancestors were feeding on herbaceous basal eudicots similar to modern herbaceous ranunculids during the Early Cretaceous, prior to the appearance and diversification of asterids. Our finding contradicts the previous hypotheses on the dipteran radiations associated with the past environmental changes. Insect feeding damages remained in fossilized leaves are currently considered as an important source for climate change studies. We review progresses in the study of the insect feeding trace fossils and their usefulness for monitoring environmental changes.

우리나라는 한국지질자원연구원을 중심으로 1995년 이후 수치지질도 작성과 더불어 웹 기반 서비스 시작, 종이지도와 수치지도를 서비스로 제공하고 있으며, 2012년 이후 모바일 기반의 수치지질도 서비스를 제공하고 있다. 본 연구의 목적은 수치지질 도와 광산지리정보 서비스를 일반인과 전문가들에게 확대하는 방안을 제시하는 것이다. 이를 위하여 한국지질자원연구원의 수치지 질도의 수요와 외부 사용자의 수요를 심층면접을 통해 조사하고, 해외 지질정보기관의 정보서비스 내용과 방식을 조사하였다. 해외사례에서 도출된 시사점으로는 전문적인 정보생산단계, 관리단계, 가공단계, 서비스단계마다 표준화가 필요하며, 서비스 단계에서는 정보통신기술의 접목을 통해서 사용자가 원하는 자료를 제공하는 것이 필요하다는 점이다. 수치지질도 서비스를 위한 내용과 항목의 방향과 광산지리정보시스템의 서비스 내용 등에 대한 내용을 제시하였다.

An investigation was conducted on the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, Glomus etunicatum on the formation of soil aggregate and mycorhizal development in the roots of Robinia pseudoacacia seedlings in coal mine tailings and forest soil. G. etunicatum formed mycorrhizas by 35.1 % in coal mine tailings and by 48.9 % in forest soil. Its infection was the typical Arum-type forming inter-cellular hyphae and intra-cellular arbuscules. Ergosterol contents were 3.20 ppm in forest soil and 1.92 ppm in coal mine tailings. The formation of soil aggregate per 50 g pot soil was 19.6 g and 9.5 g in inoculated and noninoculated forest soil and 16.5 g and 11.0 g in inoculated and non-inoculated coal min tailings, respectively. In conclusion, G. etunicatum inoculation increased the formation of soil aggregate both in forest soil and coal mine tailings, but was less effective in the latter.

효과적인 광물자원 탐사 기술을 개발하기 위하여 광물자원의 포텐셜 지도 구축 연구를 수행하였다. 대상 지역은 광상 성인모델이 알려진 가곡광산으로 선정하였다. 성인모델을 바탕으로 관계화성암, 단층, 탄산염암 등의 지질학적 요인들을 평가 인덱스로 선정하였다. 각 요인들과 광체간의 공간적 상관관계를 분석하여 각 지질 구조 들로부터의 거리에 따른 가중치를 해석, 가곡광산에 대한 포텐셜 지도를 구축하였다. 해석된 포텐셜 지도는 현재 알려진 광체의 위치에서 높은 포텐셜 값을 갖으며, 높은 포텐셜 영역의 패턴 역시 광체 패턴과 유사하게 나타나고 있다. 이 결과는 추후 수행될 자원 탐사 시 현재 알려진 광체와 유사한 지질환경을 갖는 영역을 효과적으로 제시할 수 있기 때문에 그 효용성이 높다 할 수 있다.

Ecological restoration is regarded as a major strategy for preventing biodiversity loss and thereby enhancing ecosystem service. This study was performed to evaluate ecosystem service value that the restored ecosystem provides. Ecosystem service was evaluated for provisioning and regulating services. The former service was evaluated by comparing similarities in a viewpoint of floristic composition to the reference site between the restored and the unrestored sites. Species composition of the restored site was found to be more similar to the reference site than that of the unrestored site and thereby restoration practice contributed for enhancing the provisioning service. Regulating service was evaluated based on microclimate control, soil amelioration, and improvement of water holding capacity. The value of ecosystem services in terms of microclimate control, soil amelioration, and improvement of water holding capacity was higher in the restored site than in the unrestored site. In consequence, ecological restoration of coal mine spoils contributed for enhancing the ecosystem service value of the corresponding site and thereby is rewarding the cost invested for restoration.

The capability and cost effectiveness of UUV and USV bring to underwater survey, target detection and identification operations have been widely demonstrated and accepted in recent years. Future USV systems may deploy UUVs to gain the advantage of higher area coverage rates through multiple and simultaneous operations. In this paper, we present an architecture of USV and UUV for mine countermeasure with results of measures on effectiveness.