Dear Colleagues,

The abandoned mine space has variable characteristics depending on the types of mineral deposits that were the object of exploitation, as well as climatic conditions prevailing in the regions where the mines are located. The study dedicated to the management of derelict mines or mining liability invokes physical or chemical vestiges of the former industrial activities (tails, coatings, newly formed mineral assemblages) and signs of collateral damages associated with those activities, which frequently have a typical mineralogical expression, especially where post-mining environmental remediation did not occur. Hazzard assessment (geotechnics of mining excavations and buildings), industrial mining archeology, environmental geology (water quality and water-rock interaction), and evaluation of the remaining reserves are at the base and serve as a holistic starting point for the management of the abandoned mining sites.

Among the great diversity of themes to be considered at this stage, one that has a broader scope is that which concerns the new, supergene minerals formed both in excavations and mine debris and residues. The great diversity of paragenetic systems that is possible to identify and the existence of minerals, indicating supergene evolutionary lineages and evolutionary conditions, justifies a Special Issue of this publication, including post-sulfide evolution, argillic alteration, surface crusts, underground speleothems and coatings, and newly formed assemblages generated in waste dumps and residual tailings or other mining debris—in a broader sense, all post-mining mineral assemblages. Some of these minerals might be considered as extremophile because they formed in extreme chemical Eh/pH environments that were generated by mining procedures, from extraction to mineral beneficiation and gang residue disposal, frequently in biogenic interaction.  

Any contribution concerning these materials, conditions, and consequences of water–rock interaction and biogenesis, mineral and adsorption sequestration of metals and other contaminants, approaching methods, components of holistic characterization of stages of evolution of mining sites, as well as processes and examples of mine site management, will be very welcomed.

Prof. Dr. Carlos Leal Gomes
Dr. Carlos Alves
Guest Editors

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• tailings, mine drainage
• post-mine minerals
• derelict mine site
• mineralogical assessment
• site management
• biogenic processes