# Environmentally Friendly Rock Mining--Case Study of the Limestone Mine \"Gorazdze\", Poland
## 3 Characteristics of the Limestone Mine \"Gorazdze\"  
The limestone mine \"Gorazdze\" is located in the south-western part of Poland (Figure 2). The mine belongs to the international group HeidelbergCem and is a part of Gorazdze Cement S.A., one of the three companies of the Gorazdze Group and a leading producer of cement on the Polish market. The mining plant has good transport connections with railway lines, provincial and municipal roads, and the nearby A4 motorway. The open-cast mine under consideration exploits a Triassic limestone deposit for the production of cement. The area of the mining area is 491.87 ha. The excavation of the carbonate Middle Triassic formations takes place in the entire area of documented industrial resources. The bottom of the excavation is made up of layers of Gogolian limestone with a thickness of 50 m. On the Gogolian layers there are compact layers of Gorazdze limestone, with a negligible number of marl inserts, yellow in color. The thickness of this layer is 17-24 m. In the northern region, on the Gorazdze layers, compact Terebratulic layers with a thickness of up to 15 m are deposited. The last layer of limestone lying in the roof of the deposit, on the terebratulic layers, are the Karchowice limestones with a thickness of up to 35 m. The overburden comes from the Quaternary and Tertiary periods and it is a layer of humus of thickness from 0.3 m to 13 m.  
The boundaries of the documented deposit include the protective pillar for the \"Kamien Slaski\" nature reserve, which prevents full exploitation of the deposit (Figure 3). This pillar, which covers an area of 61.1 ha, was created for a habitat of a very rare tree species in Poland, known as the wild service \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**General Objectives of** & **Specific Activities of** & **General Objectives of** & **Specific Activities of** \\
**Redamation** & **Redamation** & **Redclamation** & **Redclamation** \\ \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Agricultural} & Cropping & & Nature reserve \\ \cline{2-4}  & Breeding & & Landscape park \\ \hline \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Forest} & Forestry & & Protected landscape area \\ \cline{2-4}  & Protection & & Species protection \\ \cline{2-4}  & Recreation & & Nature monuments \\ \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Aquatic} & Water management & \multirow{2}{*}{Natural} & Inanimate nature \\ \cline{2-4}  & Recreation & & documentation site \\ \hline \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Economic} & Housing & & Ecological areas \\ \cline{2-4}  & Industry & & Landscape-nature \\ \cline{2-4}  & Services & & Natural succession \\ \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Cultural} & Scientific & & Green areas \\ \cline{2-4}  & Artistic & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: The classification of ways of reclamation [20; 24; 31]. Figure 2: Location of the Görazdze Mine on the background of the map of Poland and Europe. tree _Sorbus torminalis_, which appears in the area of the mine. This position divides the deposit into two areas: Eastern and Western. The mineral resources deposited in the protective pillar are classified as non-industrial and are not intended for extraction. Therefore, mining is conducted in two excavation sites on two production levels, based on the longwall and deep mining system, and mining progress is directed to the north [32; 33]. The deposit is excavated by means of drilling and blasting. The mine occasionally also uses mechanical excavation by means of an excavator or a bulldozer. The exploitation is conducted in a longwall system and the mining progress is directed to the north. Through the subsidence of deposits towards the north at angle 2-5\({}^{\circ}\), this results in a systematic decrease in the mine bottom and an increase in mining walls. The excavated material is then transported by trucks for preliminary crushing in crushers, and then by belt conveyors for processing in cement and lime plants. The finished products are used in the lime and cement industry, as well as in both road and residential construction.