TERMS OF REFERENCE

 

Salt & Uranium Mines Closure Manuals and Training

 

 

The Consultant will develop Closure Manuals for Salt and Uranium mines, which will incorporate the best international practices and take into consideration international benchmarking. The manuals will form the basis for training Romanian experts responsible for Uranium and Salt mining closure (particularly remediation issues). It will also identify Romanian and EU regulatory requirements for conditions associated with Uranium and Salt mine closure.

 

Existing Romanian technical regulations will be evaluated with respect to best international practice. If warranted, recommendations are to be provided to modify Romanian regulations to be consistent with international standards.

 

Provide technical assistance for specific remediation activities at selected sites to transfer practical knowledge to Romanian technical specialists on the implementation of the manual.

 

The work will be structured into 2 parts:

 

                                             Pos. 1                 Developing the Manuals

                                             Pos. 2                 Providing Training to Romanian experts

 

 

Pos. 1 Developing the Manuals

 

The work to be done in this step is quite complex, with particular focus on the following:

 

Evaluation of existing technical regulations will be conducted taking into consideration existing international best practices. If there are substantial differences the Consultant will provide specific recommendations to align the existing regulations with international standards or best practice.

 

Closure of underground mines requires special attention to geotechnical stability of the mine building and water pollution impacts of toxic and radioactive pollutants.

 

Surface (open pit) mines need to be assessed and remediated to mitigate environmental impacts to water, air and soil and safety issues associated with slope stability and security of the property.

 

Geotechnical stability of tailings impoundments poses very complex problems. The damside and the cover are closely linked to water balance, impact on groundwater and dust generation from dried-out beaches. Remediation works on a tailing will further add to this complex situation and therefore need careful planning.

 

Tailing and brine ponds may cause problems because of the salt loadings into ground and surface waters. They may, under certain circumstances, need conditioning.

 

Waste rock piles can over a long period generate acid mine drainage discharges which can create a serious water pollution problem. Depending on the waste rock material, they may be generating considerable amounts of acid seepages. Careful planning of the cover taking water balance considerations into account must be conducted.

 

Salt and salt rock piles may be generating considerable amounts of saline seepages.

 

Contaminated buildings (e.g. from the processing plants, ore bunkers) have to be demolished. The resulting wastes should be managed to minimize the amount of waste requiring special treatment and disposal methods. Management of the disposal of contaminated material strongly depends on the time frame and technology of waste dump and tailings pond remediation.

 

Mine water treatment and management constitute critical and complex tasks due to the timeframes of their treatment. The relatively large amounts of mine waters to be treated over long periods of time and the complex linkage of the disposal of resulting waters should be properly addressed. The effluents treatment standards are meant to provide a cost-effective remediation solution.

 

Underground downfalls and rockbursts are expected. They will cause depressions and collapses up to the surface. Additionally, gas generation (CH4, CO2) is possible and must be observed carefully. These mining-related seismic activities can be detected in advance by very sensitive geophysical measurements.

 

Assessing the environmental impact of past mining and milling operations is essential to define the precise need for any remediation activity, to justify expenditure of financial means for it, and to monitor the success of remediation measures. Due to the often long-term nature of monitoring programs an optimized approach for monitoring equipment and procedures, as well as frequency, grid size and precision of the monitoring network that is installed during or after remediation is needed, as well as a financing plan and the institutional responsibilities for implementing the monitoring plan.

 

The need to evaluate and mitigate the economic and social consequences of mine closure leads to the conclusion that involvement of local suppliers of services and materials can be critical to obtain acceptance from the public and other local and national stakeholders for remediation activities. The remediation concept at each individual site should therefore be aligned with these interests as much as possible. The remediation strategy of a site must also take into consideration potential after-use scenarios which can be supported by the remediation activity.

 

Apart from these object-related considerations, the Manuals should pay special attention to other general aspects such as:

 

§         geological and hydro-geological conditions, type of deposit, hydrological and hydro-geographical conditions etc.

§         review and validation of existing data

§         legal and property issues

§         site-specific natural background of Radon in the ambient air, radionuclides, heavy metals and other chemical components in soil and rivers

§         geophysical parameter, especially of seismically active zones

§         other natural resources

 

Pos. 2 Training

 

The training part of the project aims at transferring the consultant’s general and practical know-how to Romanian specialists. This will not only include transfer of technical and theoretical know-how but also job-related training, involving the discussion of problems of the Romanian specialists from their daily working environment (on-the-job training).

 

The training will consist of three training modules covering the following topics and fields:

 

  1. Geotechnical and geophysical issues including stability of cavities, waste heaps, delineation of structural zones of weakness, delineation of seismologically active zones, observation of gas ingress (CO2, CH4). Hydro-geology, surface and ground water protection issues and treatment of brines/salt-loaded surface water (contamination assessment, modeling, mitigation)
  2. Risk assessment (building materials, soil, air, water), radiation protection and monitoring concepts. Geotechnical issues (mines, dumps, tailing dams and covers)
  3. Project management, budgeting, economic evaluation of alternative concepts, decision-making; optimization and prioritization of individual projects. Social mitigation measures.

 

The training program will be based in Romania and will address:

-         specialists from regulatory and decision making entities;

-         specialists from mining companies;

-         entrepreneurs, engineers and designers.

 

The estimated number of trainees is 20.

The Manuals developed under Pos. 1 will form the basis for the training part. However, in order to compress the time until implementation starts, the development of Manuals (Pos. 1) and training (Pos. 2) will be overlapped as far as feasible by the Consultant and agreeable by the Romanian side.

All documentations related to training shall be prepared and handed over to the Client with at least one week before each training module. The Consultant shall be responsible for providing one set of training documentation (in English and Romanian) for each attendant.