Revalorization of existing tailing dumps in Serbia: Bor and Rudnik case studies

In general, there are two geological entities of interest for the study of the historic past and current research of deposits of metallic mineral resources in Serbia. The first is the Timok magmatic complex where there are mineral parageneses and associations developed from low sulfidation to high sulfidation systems. These deposits are of the upper Cretaceous age. The second complex is composed of Oligocene/Miocene deposits, whose direction is generally NNE-SSE. They mainly contain lead and zinc sediments with accompanying useful components. In both metallogenic zones, there are numerous tailing dumps that carry both useful components and environmental pollutants. Two things are highlighted with regard to recycling of tailings. The first, tailing dumps threaten the environment for as long as they exist. The second, useful trace elements remaining after ore extraction with past and present technologies can be commercialized and the toxic or unusable components disposed in an environmentally-friendly manner.