Mining and nature conservation

To an increasing degree the permissibility of mining projects is coming under the purview of nature conservation law. This field of law owes its current prominence largely to the amended Federal Nature Conservation Law and the recurrent effects of the communal habitat protection guidelines on mining operations. This has had momentous consequences for all sectors of the mining industry. The same applies to the rehabilitation of areas formerly used for mining, a very visible example of which is the remediation of former Wismut mines. This congress report on the Third Colloquium on Mining and Environmental Protection and the Tenth Aachen Environmental Meeting contains examples of rehabilitation measures that have been successfully implemented in various branches of mining