PROPOSAL OF MEASURES TO MITIGATE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ON THE AREA OF ABANDONED VAREŠ MINE
The negative impacts of the old mining operations both in our country and throughout the world represent one of the biggest environmental problems. The analysis of the previous practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the closure of mines in the past decades lead to the conclusion that very few were closed in accordance with the regulations. The problem was further complicated by the war that took place in our country from 1992 to 1995 which in certain number of cases led to the sudden stoppage of mine operations, many of which did not continue to operate even after the cessation of war activities. In the period 2013-2014 the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JICA) did an initial analysis of black industrial spots (Hot spots) in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 4 such locations were determined , one of which was the former mine in Vareš. The mine consisted of several units at different locations where various types of raw mineral materials were exploited , which made reasearch even more difficult. This primarily refers to the location of surface mine (SM) „Smreka“, the ore processing and packing plant at SM „Veovača“ and the water accumulation with flotation tailings. For the mentioned sites, a field inspection and analyses of the existing condition were carried out to obtain results required to serve as a basis for proposal of measures to reduce the impact on the environment as well as the rough estimate of the relating remediation costs, which were done separately for each of the research polygon sites. It should be emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to European Union implies significantly stricter environmental protection practices in the mining industry as well. Today, environmental protection in mining is an international standard and obligation. At the same time, the need should be pointed out to the contribution of each country in reducing the negative impact on the environment and climate changes. Key words: abandoned mines, environmental risks, measures to reduce environmental impacts, remediation