Development of risk-based criteria and an approach to ensuring geoecological safety at gold mining enterprises

Global statistics on accidents at gold mining facilities show that subsoil users often underestimate the risks, which leads to large‑scale negative geo‑ecological consequences. A distinctive feature of these incidents is the pollution of the environment with cyanides and heavy metals; some accidents are accompanied by mudflows. Modern approaches to ensuring geo‑ecological safety do not take into account the nature of the interaction between all elements of the formed natural‑technical geosystem and the industry‑specific characteristics of the enterprise. Thus, the goal of our research is to develop criteria based on risk assessment and an approach to ensuring geo‑ecological safety at gold mining enterprises, which will make it possible to manage the level of geo‑ecological hazard at the enterprises much more effectively. The methodology of the work is based on an inductive approach using mathematical statistics and system analysis. During the study, an extensive analysis of accidents at gold mining enterprises was carried out, which made it possible to identify the main types of risks at the enterprises, develop key criteria, and interpret them in accordance with the chosen approach. For a comprehensive assessment of geo‑ecological hazards, weighting coefficients have been developed, along with an approach based on the provided calculation algorithm. The results of this work represent an important step towards further development of a well‑founded and proven set of criteria and methods for ensuring geo‑ecological safety at gold mining enterprises, which can potentially be implemented in practice.

Beliakov K. V. Development of risk-based criteria and an approach to ensuring geoecological safety at gold mining enterprises. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2026;(12):84-99. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2026_12_0_84.

K.V. Beliakov, Graduate Student, University of Science and Technology MISIS, 119049, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: kirill.beliakov.000@gmail.com.

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