1656 Figure 8. - Velenje Coal mine Urban Mining concept [1, 2]. 4. CONCLUSIONS AND GOOD URBAN MINING PRACTICES Mining has become increasingly difficult for societal and environmental reasons not just in urban areas in Slovenia/Bulgaria but all over the world. There is an increasing competition with other land uses, and water and energy are scarce in many mining regions. People are not ready to radically reduce the use of mineral-based products, but increasingly oppose mining. The industry and special mining industry faces major challenges to improve its performance and image [13]. As an example of the good practice of Urban Mining model, I can mention some Slovenian mining companies that have already introduced environmentally-oriented technologies: – Velenje coal mine has upgraded the Velenje longwall mining method by introducing the hydraulic backfilling method with fly-ash paste (see Figure 8.), which minimizes the effects of mining on the subsidence of surface area and uses secondary or waste industrial materials to improve geomechanical conditions on the stopes [1, 2]; – in the Lukovica quarry and the Velika Pirešica quarry (Strabag), the mining of the technical stone limestone by the method of drilling and blasting was replaced by introduction of mechanical mining method, which minimizes the environmental impacts, such as flying rocks, seismic vibrations, noise and dusting; – in the quarries of dimension stone Hotavlje I (Marmor Hotavlje), Lipica I, Lipica II, Dolina (Marmor Sežana) and Debela Griža (Kamnoseštvo Tavčar), instead of surface extraction in open quarry, the underground room and pillar method was introduced, which minimizes the effects of dimension stone blocks extraction on the appearance of the surface and on the environment, such as deposition of waste rocks on the surface dumps, noise and dusting [12, 16]; – in the Solkan technical stone quarry (Alpacem), conventional drilling and blasting method was upgraded by introduction of an electronic initial system, which reduced environmental impacts, such as flying rock, acoustic impact and seismic vibrations [11, 15].
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