New approaches to old problems in the minerals industry (Reprinted from Trans. Instn Min. Metall., vol 108, 1999)

Mineral extraction affects the environment in many ways. In Scotland a vari ety of minerals have been exploited over the past 250 years, but the greate st residual environmental impact is that of coal mining in central Scotland -in particular, in the form of ferruginous discharges to watercourses as a consequence of water-table rebound following mine closure. Case studies of the restoration of an opencast barite mine and an opencast coal mine and of an agreement on interim pumping at a deep coal mine are cited to indicate how the Scottish Environment Protection Agency can prevail on operators to make improvements by negotiation rather than by recourse to legislation.