Optimizing the Volume Calculation for Tailing Ponds

One of the main concerns from nowadays regards environmental protection, however industrial and energetic demands cannot be left unsatisfied. In this social and economic context, mining waste deposits are a big problem which solving is imperative because of its great impact upon the society. The purpose of this paper is to optimize the quality of the results obtained from data acquisition, processing and interpretation, without an increase of the financial resort, on the particular example of two tailing ponds from Western Romania: Bozanta and Valea Mealu. Calculating the volume of a pond is the primary data for metal stocks estimations and time pollution modeling. This can be done through various methods all depending on the same input data: grids with coordinates for an upper and a lower surface, conjoining into a 3D body with the dimensions of the investigated tailing pond. The method that we propose as most efficient is through geophysical investigations, integrating the geo-electrical investigation by vertical electric soundings (VES) with building and estimating the two surfaces based on public topographical data. In this case the volume of a tailing pond can be calculated much faster and efficiently than with the classical method that implies drills.