Slag heaps. The benefit, harm and danger of the industrial symbols of mining towns

The Donetsk steppe is literally strewn with artificial grey-blue cone-shaped mountains. In the region they number more than 600. The bluish slag heaps have become the unchanging symbols of the mining towns and settlements. Like all mountain ranges, they are conquered by daring bold souls. The risky ascent up slopes at an angle of 40-60 degrees draws incorrigible romantics and desperate lovers of contemplating industrial landscapes and urban panoramas.

The dangerous climb to a dizzying height over fragments of sandstone requires considerable effort, but the desire to survey the area within a radius of 10-15 kilometres adds strength and courage.

The emission of sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide gases clogs the breathing and complicates the dash to the crag.

Besides everything, the fragmentary rocks subside, and beneath the boulders voids can form, which is not always noticeable but can bring unforeseen consequences for the seekers of adventure.

Anyone who loves to fiddle with stones and studies minerals will surely notice, on the rock scatterings, a rich array of forms and colours.

On the rock fragments there occur imprints of leaves, flowers, petrified trees and primeval organisms. Finds bearing images of ancient fossils make it possible to imagine the plant world of the Carboniferous period.

It is believed that the slag heaps contain almost the entire periodic table of Mendeleev, and even gold.

The explorers of the heaps are unlikely to find precious metals, but they may see pieces of support material and fragments of mining tools, brought out from the workings to the surface by the mine conveyor. The lucky ones will come across fragments of the narrow-gauge track along which the rock was transported.

The heaps of by-products of the mining enterprises are formed of the rock mass extracted from the mine workings.

Each mine has its own slag heap with from one to four peaks.

The surrogate hills were created by pumping out the rock with tipping mine cars. The flat spoil tips were formed by hauling waste and sludge into ravines with dump trucks and were tamped down with bulldozers.

The slag heaps cause irreparable harm to nature. The picturesque gullies are filled with enormous masses of coal-enrichment mining waste, which pollute the atmosphere with harmful chemical elements. Wind and precipitation wash toxins out of the slag heaps, which inevitably get into the soil and the bodies of water.

Specialists of the institute of mine design believe that, in order to reduce the negative impact on the environment, it is expedient to return the rock heaps back into the empty mine horizons, which will make it possible to solve the problems of the subsidence of the earth's surface and will free up huge territories from the dangerous mounds.

Very often smoke is visible over the heaps, and at night — bluish glows. The heaps resemble unpredictable volcanoes, in whose vents the temperature rises to 500 - 3,000 degrees. All the slag heaps, both active and inactive, pose a danger; in the rock, ignition of the fine fractions of coal from the released gases can suddenly arise.

There are known cases when downpours caused landslides, and water got into the voids filled with gases. In 1966 in Myrnohrad (Dymytrov), at 23.15 after a torrential rain, an explosion similar to the explosion of a hydrogen bomb occurred on the heap of mine No. 5-6. A piece of rock mass of a volume of 33 thousand cubic metres broke off from the slag heap; hot multi-tonne boulders and a flowing mass of red-hot rock, like volcanic magma, slid down onto the settlement, burying dozens of residential houses together with the sleeping people beneath it. After the displacement of the rock masses from the cavity that had formed in the side part of the hundred-metre slag heap, an ejection of hot ash, dust and steam occurred. At least about 60 people died. It was not possible to count the exact number of victims of this man-made disaster. In the 1950s-1960s, in the period of economic growth, when the slag heaps grew like mushrooms after rain, the questions of extracting benefit and of the future of the Donetsk mountains were raised more than once, but the matter got no further than projects.

Old-timers remember that the enterprising Japanese wanted to use the Ukrainian slag heaps for their national interests, but the prospects of the overseas merchants' proposal came to nothing, and the numerous peaks remained industrial monuments of the Donbas.

From the enriched rock come coal concentrate, raw material for the production of aluminium, silicon and iron. The potential of the slag heaps is considerable, but it requires large capital investment.

In some mining settlements, because of the reluctance of the local masters to spend on expensive road surfacing, the streets were paved with the reddish-brown mass and the potholes were filled with monoliths of sandstone. The ill-considered experiments with the loose material were not crowned with success and brought no benefit whatsoever.

There were attempts to manufacture bricks in large quantities from the available material, but the product remained unclaimed.

Mines are being closed and the organisations connected with the safety of the coal enterprises are being liquidated. Today there is already no one to deal with the questions of control over the burning slag heaps; there are no financial or intellectual resources.

Some of the aksakal slag heaps have been lucky: they were reclaimed and transformed, by means of landscape gardening, into unusual park landmarks. But most often the seeds of wild plants land on the rock mass, and the slopes of the man-made mountains gradually turn green and come to life.

In the thickets of trees and shrubs, birds, hedgehogs and hares even settle. Nature itself is forced to apply protective measures and hides the wounds that man has inflicted on it.