The online course organised by the Mining and Quarry Restoration Network Chair will bring together researchers and professionals who have driven some of the sector’s most significant advances in recent decades
By Carmen Pi
The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Mining and Quarry Restoration Network (RMC) are currently accepting registrations for the online course ‘Ecological Restoration of Land Affected by Mining Operations’, a specialised training programme that will take place on 16 and 17 June and will bring together some of the most highly recognised professionals and researchers in the sector in Spain.
According to the Mining and Quarry Restoration Network Chair, the programme consists of 15 hours of instruction, equivalent to 1.5 ECTS credits, and is aimed at consultancy professionals, mining companies, public administrations, technical staff and students interested in expanding their training in a field that is increasingly relevant to the sustainable development of extractive activities.
“Mining is nowadays an indispensable economic activity for the development of society and the green transition. At the same time, however, it has a significant impact on ecosystems in most cases,” explains Juan Antonio Oliet Palá, Professor of Silviculture and Forest Restoration at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and one of the course lecturers. In this regard, he stresses that “promoting and implementing effective restoration is a crucial step towards maintaining mining operations without significantly reducing the biological potential of the affected land”.
The professor also points out that the course will provide “an up-to-date overview of the main strategies and techniques for restoring land affected by mining activities”, thanks to a teaching team made up of specialists in virtually every area of restoration, “from geomorphological restoration to vegetation management, erosion control and biodiversity enhancement”.
A leading teaching team
One of the course’s main attractions is precisely the calibre of its teaching staff. Geomorphology, hydrology, biodiversity, forest restoration, soil recovery and geotechnical stability are among the disciplines that will be covered during the two-day training programme, led by experts with extensive scientific and professional experience.
José Francisco Martín Duque, a professor at the Complutense University of Madrid and an international authority on geomorphological restoration, will present the foundations of this discipline as applied to mining areas. José Manuel Nicolau Ibarra, a professor at the University of Zaragoza and one of Spain’s leading specialists in ecohydrology and ecological restoration, will address the hydrological and ecological foundations underpinning these environmental recovery processes.
Juan Antonio Oliet Palá will focus his presentation on the design and implementation of planting schemes for the restoration of degraded land, while Pedro Villar Salvador, a researcher at the University of Alcalá and a specialist in ecological restoration and plant quality, will analyse techniques for restoring herbaceous cover and soil salvage.
The programme will also feature Emilio Trigueros Tornero, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena and an expert in geotechnics applied to mining, who will address the stability of quarry rock faces; and Víctor Mario Pérez Domínguez, from the Tormes-EB Foundation, who will explore biodiversity management in restored mining environments.
Likewise, Ana Isabel Aparicio Navarro and Ibán Hurtado Picó, technical experts at VAERSA with extensive experience in mining restoration projects, will explain the minimum requirements that a restoration project in the Valencian Region should include. The course will conclude with the participation of Beatriz Olmo Gilabert, Technical Director of the Mining and Quarry Restoration Network (RMC), who will present various practical case studies and the criteria for selecting mining restoration techniques.
The organisers highlight that the course aims to provide a broad yet comprehensive overview of mining restoration, combining scientific knowledge, professional experience and real-world examples of application in the field. The objective is to provide tools that enable the design of more rigorous, functional restoration projects aligned with natural processes.
The Mining and Quarry Restoration Network (RMC) is a non-profit technical association established in 2023 that brings together professionals from public administrations, universities, mining companies, consultancies and research centres with the aim of promoting improvements in mining restoration through training, knowledge transfer and collaboration among the different stakeholders in the sector.