Dust and Noise Environmental Impact Assessment and Control in Serbian Mining Practice

This paper presents an approach to dust and noise environmental impact assessment and control in Serbian mine planning theory and practice. Mine planning defines the model of mining operations, production and processing rates, and ore excavation and dumping scheduling, including spatial positioning for all these activities. The planning process then needs to assess the impact of these mining activities on environmental quality. This task can be successfully completed with contemporary models for assessment of suspended particles dispersion and noise propagation. In addition to that, this approach enables verification of the efficiency of suggested protection measures for reduction or elimination of identified impact. A case study of dust and noise management at the Bor copper mine is presented, including the analysis of the efficiency of planned protection measures from dust and noise, within long-term mine planning at the Veliki Krivelj and Cerovo open pits of the Bor copper mine.