Regional geo-environment assessment for mining area based on Monte Carlo simulation and its case study

Based on the system analysis on the structure and function of the mining environment social and economic system analysis, an indicator framework for geological environment assessment of single mine as constructed. With the involvement of combination weighting theory, Satty's Weighting method and Entropy Weight method was combined to compute the weight of each index. Furthermore, probability distribution function was employed to describe the probabilistic distribution characteristics of each index, and Monte Carlo method was used to propagate the influence of uncertainties of index on the regional geological quality of the environment. Ultimately, a MC-base method was constructed to evaluate the regional geological environment. The model was applied to assess the mine geological environment quality of two areas within the Ningxia Hui Autonomous. The results showed that: 1) the relative difference between the Monte Carlo-based method and the traditional method is 11%; being compared with traditional methods, the model can overcome the limit of measured data' discrete, and is able to fully characterize the regional geological environment quality; 2) Case studies show Zhongwei area's mine geological environment quality is worse than that of Guyuan area with more than 95% of the mine subject to serious or very serious damage level. It is therefore suggested that in making planning of environmental protection and mine geological environment restoration of, Zhongwei area should be paid more attention and placed in front of the sequence. © Metallurgical and Mining Industry, 2015.