Waste soil and rock removed during surface mining is called. a. hazardous waste.

A type of strip mining in hilly areas where the mineral is exposed at the surface at roughly the same height along the hillside. It involves removing the overburden from the mineral seam, starting at the outcrop and proceeding around the hillside, so the cut appears as a contour line.

What are some ways an area can undergo reclamation after being mined? Refilled/reshaped w/vegetation planted; filled w/water to become a lake; turned into landfill; left open as home for bats or sealed off if underground.

Estimated costs of mined land reclamation averaged $3,500 per acre in 1976 for western coal regions, an average of 5 cents per ton of coal produced and less than 1 percent of mine-mouth coal prices.

The Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Reclamation Program uses fees paid by present-day coal mining companies to reclaim coal mines abandoned before 1977. This makes these areas safer for people and the environment.

Cons: Mining in the wilderness would result in soil erosion, lower biodiversity, and the destruction of the natural environment. DevelopedPros: Mining in developed areas is good because it would bring more people to the city or area, which brings revenue.

Congress allowed mining in wilderness areas under certain circumstances in the Wilderness Act of 1964, and subsequently the 1980 Central Idaho Wilderness Act, which established the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

A mining company can try to restore the land back to its original state after completing the extraction of ore by cleaning up the area and paying for any damages that may have occurred during the process.

After the coal is stripped, mine companies are legally required to do some restoration, which usually involves replacing the exploded soil and rock—rubble—covering it with a layer of topsoil, and seeding it with anything that will hold the ground together.

The simplest method of land reclamation involves simply filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement, then filling with clay and soil until the desired height is reached. Draining of submerged wetlands is often used to reclaim land for agricultural use.