In this study, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prioritized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), associated pollution level, and health risks were assessed in a typical coal spontaneous combustion zone in the Rujigou coal mine in Northwestern China. This study used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to detect the chemical composition, spatial variation, distribution profiles, impact of coal spontaneous combustion, and health risks of PAHs. The entire study area is divided into three zones according to different features: the spontaneous combustion zone (C-zone), the living zone (L-zone), and the non-spontaneous combustion zone (N-zone). The results showed that: (1) the highest concentrations were measured in the C-zone, and the average concentrations of PAHs in the C-zone, N-zone, and L-zone were 13.28 ng·m⁻³, 9.56 ng·m⁻³, and 7.67 ng·m⁻³, respectively. (2) The PAHs of the study area were mainly composed of three ring to five ring PAHs. (3) EPA positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis of qualitative source apportionment of PAHs showed that chemical production was the major source of atmospheric PAHs in all three zones, followed by coal combustion. (4) The inhalation of PAHs showed higher potential cancer risk for children than for adults, and the impact of coal combustion in the C-zone was much greater than the other zone. The adverse health impacts associated with PAH exposure indicates the need for mitigation measures of pollution control in this region.

An environmental impact assessment was performed to evaluate the environmental impact of ion-adsorption type rare earth (iRee) mining in Southern Jiangxi Province, China. Based on the research of essential factors for mining environment systems, an evaluation index system for surface water quality was established, and a special assessment model was built based on principal component analysis and fuzzy theory. On the basis of evaluating the water quality, a fuzzy comprehensive judgment model was established to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the local mining area's geological environmental quality. Four factors such as physical geography (A), basic geology (B), mining development coverage (C), and environmental influences (D) were selected and combined with field data and measurement results. These factors were used to establish an index system using an expert system and objectivity to determine the weight of the factors. A comprehensive evaluation model for the geological environmental impact of different types of iRee mines (light and heavy rare earth mines) was established based on a support vector machine (SVM) model. The results indicate that the monitoring and governance model successfully assesses the environmental impact of typical iRee mining areas by classifying the environmental quality into four levels. The model has a strong applied value as it provides help for geo-environmental management, helps with the exploitation of iRee mineral resources, protects the geological environments and helps restoring and reconstructing mine environments.

Sixty-four surface water samples were selected to study the water quality around the lithium mining area in western Sichuan Province. Principal component analysis, in which 6 principal component indexes (Mn, Zn, As, Cl⁻, SO₄ ²⁻, NO³⁻) with cumulative contribution rate >85% were selected as the assessment index. Based on fuzzy mathematics, the membership function is used to determine the attribution of all indexes, and the pollution contribution rate is used to determine the index weight. Using the national standard (Environmental quality standards for surface water, GB3838-2002 and Quality standard for ground water, GB/T 14848-93) as a benchmark, a fuzzy comprehensive assessment model based on Python language was established to assess the water environment quality of the mining area. The result shows that the water environment classification of sixty-four sampling points in the mining area are all Grade I. This result indicates that the water environment quality of the mining area is very good, and the mineralization and mining engineering activities do not pollute the water environment around the mining area.