The Deepwater Horizon oil spill accident (variously referred to as the BP oil spill/disaster or the Macondo blowout) commenced on April 20th, 2010 on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect drilling platform. The ensuing fire aboard the drilling platform claimed eleven lives. Following the explosion and sinking of the fl oating oil rig, a sea-fl oor oil gusher fl owed for 87 days, until it was capped on July 15th, 2010. Th e total discharge has been estimated at 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m3), and the event was considered by some authorities to be the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. 

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) platform drilling the Macondo well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 exploded, killing 11 workers and injuring another 17. The DWH oil spill resulted in nearly 5 million barrels (approximately 200 million gallons) of crude oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The full impacts of the spill on the GoM and the people who live and work there are unknown but expected to be considerable, and will be expressed over years to decades.

Preface to ”Recent Trends in Phosphate Mining and Beneficiation and Related Waste Management” 

Yassine Taha and Mostafa Benzaazoua Editorial for Special Issue: “Recent Trends in Phosphate Mining, Beneficiation and Related Waste Management”

Yaoyang Ruan, Dongsheng He and Ruan Chi Review on Beneficiation Techniques and Reagents Used for Phosphate Ores

Ha¨ıfa Boujlel, Ghassen Daldoul, Ha¨ıfa Tlil, Radhia Souissi, Noureddine Chebbi, Nabil Fattah and Fouad Souissi The Beneficiation Processes of Low-Grade Sedimentary Phosphates of Tozeur-Nefta Deposit (Gafsa-Metlaoui Basin: South of Tunisia)

Water is among the most essential resources that sustain Earth’s ecosystems, but these systems are currently under threat due to land use and climate change. Assessing the impact of this global change on water security and ecosystem’s functions is not only the key concern of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, playing a key role in sustainable development of society, but also the most important research focus in “Future Earth” and Earth critical zone research.

В работе на основании обобщения опыта применения противофильтрационных завес в мировой практике в различных областях экономики и новых результатов исследований рассмотрены способы сооружения различных типов завес с целью создания благоприятных условий проведения горных и строительных работ, защиты застроенных территорий от подтопления и охраны водных ресурсов от истощения и загрязнения. Изложены технологии нарезки и заполнения траншей, инъектирования водоносных пород закрепляющими составами в различных геолого-гидрогеологических условиях.

В первом разделе приведены размеры загрязненных земель к началу ХХI века по каждому административному субъекту Российской Федерации. Оценивались площади территорий, подверженных хроническому техногенному загрязнению в сфере влияния городских поселений и магистральных дорог. Загрязненные земли занимают 4% российской территории (683 тыс. кв. км). По Федеральным округам этот показатель находится в интервале от 0,7% (Дальневосточный округ) до 19,3% (Центральный округ).

Shengrong Xie, Fangfang Guo and Yiyi Wu Control Techniques for Gob-Side Entry Driving in an Extra-Thick Coal Seam with the Influence of Upper Residual Coal Pillar: A Case Study

Yunbing Hou, Junqi Cui and Ruipeng Liu Study on the Long-Distance Gas Pre-Drainage Technology in the Heading Face by Directional Long Borehole

Shengrong Xie, Yiyi Wu, Fangfang Guo, Hang Zou, Dongdong Chen, Xiao Zhang, et al. Application of Pre-Splitting and Roof-Cutting Control Technology in Coal Mining: A Review of Technology

Yang Liu, Tong Zhang, Jun Wu, Zhengyang Song and Fei Wang Experimental Study on Deformation Behavior and Permeability Evolution of Sandstone Responding to Mining Stress

The objective of this chapter is to provide a foundation for the rest of the Handbook. It does so by initially describing the history and outlining the purpose, which is then followed by a definition of its structure or organization, which is immediately succeeded by a Reader’s Guide for each chapter. Finally, it alerts the wader to the current rush of events that make for a short shelf life for some of the presented information, especially laws in force and controlling political events. Nevertheless, this Handbook is designed to be more a manual stressing basic principles that change little, rather than a textbook supplier of details that are constantly in transition. As such, the Authors and Editors have tried to focus upon more universal design concepts in the field. Even if specific examples become dated, the Handbook is meant to be an enduring repository of basic engineering theories that form the foundation of environmental protection in the mining industry.  <...>

Av the mining industry continues to grow, so too do its environmental impacts and the need for efficient reclamation methods.
The mining industry produces metals that are essential for global economic development. To do so, mining operations exploit ore deposits. For these ore bodies, both those exploited by open pits and underground mines, the proportion of the economic value compared to the whole excavated rock is very low. which implies that large quantities of solid wastes are produced annually, particularly waste rocks and mine tailings (Lottemioser 2007). Waste rocks are economically nonviable material excavated to reach ore-bearing rock. They are usually stored in waste rock piles at the surface. Tailings are ground rock particles resulting from ore processing.

This report is a product of the Committee on USGS Water Resources Research, which provides consensus advice to the Water Resources Division (WRD) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on scientific, research, and programmatic issues. The committee is one of the groups that works under the auspices of the Water Science and Technology Board (WSTB) of the National Research Council.