FORMATION OF A RECLAMATION LAYER AT OPEN-CAST MINING

Land reclamation must ensure that the quality of the land complies with environmental quality standards and the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation. The pur­pose of this work was to study the process of formation of a reclamation layer in open-cast coal mines. The indicators of the quality of the fertile soil layer should correlate to the quality of the fertile soil layer on average for the region. For effective recultivation, the fertile soil layer should be distinguished by a high content of humic acids and nutrients, as well as a higher degree of saturation with bases. The mechanical composition of the fertile soil layer should be loamy or clayey. Within agriculturally-focused reclamation, the thickness of the reclamation layer should be 0.8—1.5 m, depending on the moisture regime and the type of crop grown. The thickness of the bulk fertile soil layer depends on its availability and should in all cases be at least 0.3 m, in the chernozem zone — 0.4 m. The thickness of the fertile soil layer can be reduced to 0.20 m when arranging hayfields and pastures plots. During forest reclamation, the soil composition of the reclamation layer prepared for trees in the root layer (1.5—2 m) should be optimal for tree growth. Large (more than 0.3 m) stones should not be fixed at ground level (0.4—0.5 m), as this makes mechanization difficult. Also, the amount of fine-grained soil should not be lower than 5—10 %. Otherwise, a fertile soil layer should be ap­plied to the planned surface of the reclamation layer of the required thickness.