Assessment of industrial waste disposal practices in the mining sector of Uzbekistan

Abstract

As a result of the intensive development of the mining and metallurgical industry, the volume of industrial waste continues to grow year after year. These wastes contain highly toxic heavy metals, aggressive chemical reagents, and other environmentally hazardous components threatening the environment and human health. Among the mining sector's most dangerous yet critical infrastructural elements are tailings storage facilities structures designed to accumulate industrial waste (specifically slurry) and typically built from earthen materials. Such facilities' planning, construction, and operation often lack sufficient technical and financial resources, rendering them high-risk structures. Foundation settlement, internal erosion, filtration, breach risk, and seismic instability are all factors that necessitate continuous monitoring to ensure the safety of these storage facilities. Traditional geodetic and mine surveying techniques provide insufficient monitoring capabilities. In current conditions, these methods must be supplemented by geoinformation technologies (GIS, remote sensing, UAVs), which offer spatial coverage, rapid data acquisition, and the capacity for integrated analysis. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the structure, risk level, and monitoring methods of various waste storage facilities operated by the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combinat (NMMC), utilizing GIS technologies.