This study is a trial for presenting high attractiveness of shape form in abandoned quarry areas, as well as for indicating social interest in the areas in terms of their attractiveness. For this reason, a procedure of evaluation of the landscape attractiveness of abandoned quarries is suggested, which was created by assigning additional partial criteria, and their comparison with the criteria of already existing methods. Methods used for the research are as follows: the semantic differential technique (also called Osgood’s method), the entropy method, and the method of point bonitation. In order to verify the procedure suggested, 10 objects (quarries) located in the area of the Ślęża Landscape Park with its buffer zone were studied. Then, comparative studies were conducted, this time with quarries from Great Britain and Austria, also subject to some forms of environmental protection. The results of the research suggest that the main indicator of a quarries’ attractiveness is their uniqueness, aesthetic appeal, interest, and the curiosity they raise, which allows the formation of four classification groups for attractiveness: very attractive, attractive, slightly attractive, and unattractive quarries. The research conducted also indicates that highly attractive quarries may gain a larger number of tourists and the development of hiking, cycling, horse riding, and, in some cases, also qualified tourism (rock climbing or diving) through creating additional side attractions. Additionally, due to their uniqueness and form differentiation, abandoned quarries may be used for common social education, being a didactic place in programmes of touristic trips, science lessons, and ecological education.

The article attempts to classify and standardize the terminology used in the literature related to a post-mining land use. The following terms were discussed: restoration, reclamation, rehabilitation, land development and revitalization as well as their explicitness enabling one to understand the essence of a certain process properly. On the basis of the existing methods of post-mining areas development found in the literature on the subject, certain inaccuracies related to the terminology of ways of reclamation and methods of development were shown. This situation enables one to offer a new, developed and flexible classification of ways of reclamation including all the possible forms of post-mining land use. This classification considers methods of reclamation and restoration of utility value to post-mining areas on the basis of 6 general (ngen) and 23 specific ways (nspec), which terminology is unambiguous and leaves no space for doubts as to the interpretation. The essence of the offered classification is a possibility of joining general and specific ways into semantic combinations excluding possible inaccuracies in understanding. A possible form of notation of general and specific ways is as follows: , and, possibly, . This kind of approach enables one to consider each place individually, step out of the box and increase a number of semantic combinations from number n_gen to number n_gen*n_spec. The offered classification may also be successfully used in determining ways of rehabilitation, revitalization or land development.

The historic post-mining objects deserve special attention due to their high cognitive and didactic value. Conducting the revitalization of such facilities is aimed at preserving the mining cultural heritage, and as a result, it will insert attractiveness to the region. The publication attempts to present an approach to the issues of revitalization of post-mining objects and their analysis in Poland, Spain, and UK. In Poland, there is the Revitalization Act, which comprehensively defines stages and ways of conducting revitalization. Spanish legal regulations do not provide for a separate legal act on revitalization, but they are based on mining Law, environmental law, and cultural heritage law. On the other hand, legal regulations in UK do not provide solutions for the revitalization of post-mining areas. However, land leases could incorporate within them, prior to any industrial or mining activities commencement, a requirement for re-stabilization or returning the land to a safe environmental condition on activity completion. Despite the considerable diversity of legal conditions in the described countries, revitalization measures are conducted with positive results, as illustrated by the Gold Mine in Zloty Stok, La Tortilla Mine in Linares, and revitalization of King Edward Mine, an old mining site in Cornwall.

The article analyses the method of testing the abrasion resistance of sandstones on Böhme abrasion test apparatus and describes the problems related to the implementation of this test, as well as the interpretation of the results. The tests were conducted in accordance with the requirements of the EN14157 standard on 14 samples of dry and water-saturated sandstones. The analysis of the results showed that the correlation coefficient for the results obtained in the case of dry samples tests in relation to water saturation was 0.944. It was also observed that the loss of volume during the abrasion process in the individual stages of the test is smaller with the increase of rotation on the disc. In the case of dry samples abrasion, the reason for this is the mixing of abrasive grain and worn stone. In the case of samples tested under conditions of water saturation, the sample is covered with the abrasive grain, which in further phases is liquefied and mixed with the worn stone mass. In this case, however, the abrasion is worse in comparison with the samples tested in the dry condition, because the liquid and mixed abrasive grain with the worn rock mass causes the sample to slide, which in turn results in the abrasion volume loss. The control of the abrasion resistance results obtained from the stone abrasion according to the EN14157 standard should be a comparison with the abrasion resistance results obtained in the process of calculating the abrasion volume loss of sample determined from height.

The article describes the research on the analysis of the economic use of mining and processing waste produced and stored on the premises of active mining plants exploiting rock raw materials in the context of the reduce-recycle-reuse (3R) concept. To assess the potential economic applications of the investigated wastes, a two-stage methodology based on a multicriteria analysis using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) algorithm was proposed. Preliminary research produced an inventory of active mining plants storing mining and processing waste on their premises (62 locations). Then, preliminary qualitative analysis was carried out to assess mining waste locations at the environmental and social level consistent with the idea of circular economy—CE (20 locations). Next, in the first stage of the multi-criteria analysis, six directions of economic use of the investigated waste were analyzed and their significance was determined. These directions are use in road and railroad construction, construction, agriculture, reclamation and development of post-mining areas, food industry, and storage at landfills of mining and processing waste on the premises of a mining plant. In the result of the assessment of potential economic applications of mining waste, recommendations for directions of economic use were obtained for the six highest classified mining waste sites. The recommendations were determined in the second stage of multi-criteria analysis by deriving the local preferences (waste sites) for the alternatives (waste uses).

The Lower Silesia area in SW Poland is characterized by a geological structure that is conducive to mining activity. The exploitation of rock raw materials plays an important role in this sector of the economy. By the end of 2017, there were in total approximately 400 current concessions for the exploitation of rock raw materials in the analysed area (Polish Geological Institute, MIDAS database—Management and Protection System of Polish Mineral Resources). The conducted mining activity results in waste, which in the greatest amount occurs in the process of obtaining crushed road and construction aggregates, natural aggregates, carbonate raw materials for the cement and lime industry, as well as stone elements for construction and road engineering. At the end of 2016, the mining plants accumulated 26,569,600 Mg of waste. As part of the European Regions Toward Circular Economy (CircE) project, research was conducted on the volume and composition of the mining waste of rock raw materials in the years 2010–2016 within Lower Silesia. This research used the methods of statistical, descriptive and spatial analysis to identify mining plants with the highest potential for using their wastes. In the course of this study, 6 mining plants with the highest potential of using their waste for industrial production purposes were selected. In order to objectively select these plants, the methodology of qualitative multi-criteria analysis was developed, and 7 criteria were selected for assessing the economic potential of using waste from the mining of rock raw materials. An additional result of this research is a database and graphical presentation of changes in the spatial distribution of generated waste in the Lower Silesia region in the years ranging from 2010 to 2016.