This paper presents an approach to dust and noise environmental impact assessment and control in Serbian mine planning theory and practice. Mine planning defines the model of mining operations, production and processing rates, and ore excavation and dumping scheduling, including spatial positioning for all these activities. The planning process then needs to assess the impact of these mining activities on environmental quality. This task can be successfully completed with contemporary models for assessment of suspended particles dispersion and noise propagation. In addition to that, this approach enables verification of the efficiency of suggested protection measures for reduction or elimination of identified impact. A case study of dust and noise management at the Bor copper mine is presented, including the analysis of the efficiency of planned protection measures from dust and noise, within long-term mine planning at the Veliki Krivelj and Cerovo open pits of the Bor copper mine.

Noise emissions are a significant environmental impact caused by the mining industry in all technological phases of surface mining, mineral processing, and waste disposal. This paper presents the role of noise impact assessment and control in large-scale surface mining operations. Mine planning develops the model of mining operations, ore excavation, and waste dumping scheduling and processing rates, including spatial distribution of mining activities. Such a level of mine planning requires an environmental impact assessment study. This can be achieved by applying noise impact assessment models. The described approach can be used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed protection measures to reduce or eliminate the identified negative impacts. This paper presents a case study of environmental noise impact assessment and control at the Serbia Zijin Copper DOO Bor mine, encompassing the analysis of the noise protection measures efficiency within the planning of large-scale mining operations at the open-pit mine Veliki Krivelj.

To encourage proper waste management for electrical and electronic devices (e-waste), it is necessary to invest heavily in the development of recycling technologies. One way to improve the process is to automate separating the shredded parts of e-waste using a robot. This paper’s literature review, utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, showcases potential robotic technologies for e-waste separation. However, the intricate design of these devices can pose significant challenges in their implementation. Various legal, organizational, and sociological obstacles have left Serbia’s e-waste management practice underdeveloped, resulting in an unsatisfactory recycling rate. In this paper, we examined the possibility of using robots in the precise example of recycling refrigerators in a recycling center in Eastern Serbia, concluding that such a solution would have multiple positive effects, both on the employees and the working environment, on the operations of the recycling center itself, and on increasing the e-waste recycling rate in the country.

A detailed analysis of the accident that occurred at the flotation tailings storage facility (TSF) at the inactive mine “Stolice” in 2014 is provided in this paper. All factors that caused the accident have been analyzed, with a review of the consequences of the accident, their accident class according to the Global Industry Standard on Tailings (GISTM), and the implemented measures to rehabilitate the TSF and the surrounding area after the accident. It has been concluded that the TSF had not been properly maintained even before the accident occurred and that the unfavorable weather conditions in Serbia in the May of that year contributed to the filtration disturbance and multiple tailings spillages from the TSF. It has been stated that the consequences according to the GISTM span from “low” to “significant”, with the group of environmental consequences having the highest rank (3). Although the accident occurred without recorded human casualties, with the damage being of a local nature, it is considered one of the most significant accidents at a TSF in Serbia in the last 20 years. The reconstructed TSF is considered stable now, with a low-to-medium risk of failure.

The management of industrial solid waste is regulated through several legal acts in Serbia, and in the last few years intensive work has been done to improve the legal norms that regulate the conversion of waste into materials that are no longer waste, in order to achieve the goals, set by the Green Agenda and the National Waste Management Plan. This paper provides an overview of the legal regulations which are regulating waste management, with special reference to acts and articles of acts that regulate the reuse and recovery of solid industrial waste. Possible obstacles and doubts that may arise when interpreting legal provisions are listed, with a focus on similarities and differences in the guidelines for converting waste into a by-product and material with and of waste status, the possibility of hazardous waste recovery, and the specifics of importing waste that is no longer waste into Serbia from one of the countries of the European Union. Through an example of converting fly ash into a useful cementitious raw material, some difficulties that have been encountered so far in practice are illustrated. In the conclusion of this paper, certain measures were proposed to overcome the mentioned obstacles in the implementation of the circular economy through the encouragement of the recovery of industrial waste.

To encourage proper waste management from electrical and electronic devices (e-waste), it is necessary to invest heavily in the development of recycling technologies. One way to improve the process is to automate separating the shredded parts of e-waste using a robot. This paper's literature review, utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, showcases potential robotic technologies for e-waste separation. However, the intricate design of these devices can pose significant challenges in their implementation. Various legal, organizational, and sociological obstacles have left Serbia's e-waste management practice underdeveloped, resulting in an unsatisfactory recycling rate. In this paper we examined the possibility of using robots on the precise example of recycling refrigerators in a recycling center in Eastern Serbia, concluding that such a solution would have multiple positive effects, both on the employees and the working environment, on the operations of the recycling center itself, and on increasing the e-waste recycling rate in the country.