Mid-Conference Field Trips

The mid-con­fer­ence field trips are sched­uled to take place on Wed­nes­day, dur­ing the con­fer­ence. It offers attendees a wel­come oppor­tun­ity to take a break from the aca­dem­ic ses­sions and to wit­ness first-hand the prac­tic­al chal­lenges and solu­tions in the field of Por­tuguese mine water man­age­ment. The trips will com­prise a blend of tech­nic­al vis­its and cul­tur­al exper­i­ences, designed to provide insights into the prac­tic­al chal­lenges and solu­tions in the field. In addi­tion to deep­en­ing attendees’ under­stand­ing of mine water issues, the excur­sion will allow them to appre­ci­ate the scen­ic beauty and cul­tur­al rich­ness of north­ern Por­tugal.

The regis­tra­tion fee of 100 € includes excur­sion fees and trans­port­a­tion. Lunch is not included.

| Covas Mine

The Cov­as Mine, loc­ated in the Minho region of north­west­ern Por­tugal, has been aban­doned since 1984. This former tung­sten mine, set in a skarn with sulf­ides, still poses numer­ous envir­on­ment­al chal­lenges. After mine clos­ure, the waste dumps were char­ac­ter­ized by phys­ic­al instabil­ity and a lack of an adequate drain­age sys­tem. The high con­cen­tra­tion of metal­lic sulf­ides in the waste pose a sub­stan­tial threat to the loc­al water envir­on­ment.

Vis­it­ors can explore the envir­on­ment­al remedi­ation pro­ject, which includes: (1) reopen­ing and redesign­ing peri­met­er clean water ditches, (2) redesign­ing and par­tially seal­ing waste piles in rav­ine areas with slopes designed for safety sta­bil­iz­a­tion and reduced visu­al impact, (3) dir­ect­ing leachate water to pass­ive treat­ment sys­tems, and (4) revital­iz­a­tion and reve­get­a­tion to pro­mote res­tor­a­tion and land­scape integ­ra­tion.

Even after passing through a pass­ive treat­ment sys­tem, mine drain­age retains an acid­ic pH and high sulfate, iron, man­ganese, and alu­min­um con­cen­tra­tions. As a res­ult, streams in the min­ing region exhib­it typ­ic­al acid mine drain­age char­ac­ter­ist­ics. One such stream, the Ribeiro do Poço Negro, rep­res­ents an extreme eco­lo­gic­al envir­on­ment that provides a unique oppor­tun­ity to study the inter­ac­tions between acido­phil­ic algae and sec­ond­ary min­er­als such as iron oxy­hy­drox­ides.

A cul­tur­al tour enriches the tech­nic­al vis­it to the Cov­as Mine. Vis­it­ors will enjoy the lush Minho land­scape, taste the region­al pastries, and explore the his­tor­ic­al archi­tec­ture of Ponte de Lima and Vila Nova de Cer­veira, two of Portugal’s old­est and most typ­ic­al towns.

| São Pedro da Cova Mine

Loc­ated near Porto, the São Pedro da Cova Mine has been deal­ing with the issue of self-burn­ing coal waste piles since 2005. These piles sub­stan­tially impair eco­sys­tems and human health. The dis­cov­ery of coal in the late 18th cen­tury trans­formed São Pedro da Cova from an agrari­an soci­ety to an indus­tri­al eco­nomy.

Today, the remains of the old min­ing com­plex, espe­cially the coal pro­cessing and dis­patch build­ings, remain remark­able land­marks. Vis­it­ors can explore a per­man­ent exhib­i­tion of objects and his­tor­ic­al arti­facts from the coal min­ing era.

The tech­nic­al tour of the São Pedro da Cova Mine is com­ple­men­ted by a vis­it to the river­side towns of Porto and Gaia, where you can exper­i­ence the tast­ing of Port Wine, renowned for its rich his­tory and dis­tinct­ive, soph­ist­ic­ated fla­vor pro­file, offer­ing a unique blend of sweet­ness and com­plex­ity that reflects the tra­di­tion­al wine­mak­ing her­it­age of the Douro Val­ley.

| Pintor Mine

Can­celed because of access issues to the site.

| Borralha Mining Complex

His­tor­ic­ally, the Bor­ralha Min­ing Com­plex com­pris­ing 52 con­ces­sions, was an import­ant pro­du­cer of wolfram­ite with minor scheel­ite pro­duc­tion (18%) until it was closed and aban­doned in 1986. Min­ing activ­it­ies included under­ground oper­a­tions and open pit min­ing of vein and brec­cia zones, exploit­ing a stock­work struc­ture.

Today, on an area of about 50 hec­tares, there are sev­er­al waste dumps, some of them of con­sid­er­able volume, old indus­tri­al facil­it­ies, includ­ing the labor­at­ory, the two laun­dries, and vari­ous ruined build­ings, wells and gal­ler­ies. This site, loc­ated in one of the wet­test regions of the Iberi­an Pen­in­sula, is not only a his­tor­ic­al min­ing com­plex. It’s also an import­ant envir­on­ment­al site, drained by numer­ous water­courses that receive water affected by min­ing, mak­ing it an inter­est­ing case study in envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion.

The tech­nic­al vis­it to the Bor­ralha Min­ing Com­plex will be a truly enrich­ing exper­i­ence. Par­ti­cipants will not only explore the indus­tri­al his­tory of the com­plex, but also immerse them­selves in the nat­ur­al won­ders of the Bar­roso region and the nearby Ger­ês Nation­al Park. They will be able to observe the region’s stun­ning land­scapes, endem­ic flora and fauna, and inter­est­ing geo­lo­gic­al fea­tures that con­trib­ute to its des­ig­na­tion as a UNESCO Glob­al Geo­park. This com­ple­ment­ary exper­i­ence will provide a hol­ist­ic under­stand­ing of the area’s nat­ur­al and geo­lo­gic­al her­it­age, enhan­cing the appre­ci­ation of its indus­tri­al his­tory and envir­on­ment­al rel­ev­ance.