I. V. Tananaev Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Rare Elements and Mineral Raw Materials, Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Apatity, Russia:

M. V. Slukovskaya, Senior Researcher, e-mail: krem.mv@gmail.com
I. P. Kremenetskaya, Senior Researcher
T. N. Vasilieva, Senior Researcher

N. A. Avrorin Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute, Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Apatity, Russia:

L. A. Ivanova, Head of Laboratory

The paper presents the results of a long-term experiment on remediation of depressed territories (technogenic barrens) in Subarctic (the Kola Peninsula, Russia). The main negative factors, hampering processes of natural restorative succession of such territories, are the inclement environmental conditions and permanent aerotechnogenic exposure, which leads to high acidity level and high concentrations of metals in atmospheric precipitation and soil solutions. An innovative “mild” remediation technique of soils in an impact zone of a copper-nickel plant, using different types of mining wastes, has been put forward. It has been shown that these wastes serve as effective ameliorants due to high content of calcium and magnesium carbonates and/or silicates and have a prolonged beneficial effect on nutrient regime of soils. The vegetable cover of grain crops established on the above mentioned wastes without resorting to soil and peat, scarce in the region, has been proven to be productive and resistant to aerotechnogenic burden. In order to estimate favorability of technosoil during the process of monitoring research of artificial phytocenosis evolution, there has been suggested an integral index — module of toxicity, defined as a ratio of phytoavailable copper and nickel aggregate content to calcium and magnesium, expressed in mole units. It has been found that sungulite wastes of phlogopite mining (city of Kovdor, Murmansk region) appear to be a sort of mining wastes which have considerable promise with relation to effectiveness of land-improvement and economic expediency of their use in large-scale work on remediation of depressed territories in subarctic conditions.

V. V. Lashchuk and S. V. Drogobuzhskaya are also participated in the work (I.V. Tananaev Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Rare Elements and Mineral Raw Materials, Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Apatity, Russia).
The work has been implemented owing to organizational and financial support of the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company JSC. The work is included into the program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Implementation of basic research in the interests of the Arctic region development”, and has also received the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project мол_а_дк 16-35-60022.

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