The abandoned Orlovka mine district is situated within previously "closed territory" and provided strategic metal resources (Ta, Nb, Li, Be) for the FSU defence industries. Hence, it was inaccessible for study, despite the existing environmental hazards due to extensive pollution and disruption to nature caused by mining. The Orlovka mining and processing plant operated rare-metal ores of the Orlovka deposit since the early sixties. In 1993 the mining was temporarily stopped. However, significant reserves of unsold potentially economic products, as well as waste tailings are stored here. Ores of the Orlovka deposit are enriched in Ta, Nb, Li, and F. The list of toxic elements includes also Pb, As, Cd, U, Th, Se, Bi, Hg, Sb, Zn, Mo, and Be. Dispersion of the above-mentioned elements has lead to significant changes in the chemistry of soil, stream sediments, waste dumps and tailings and of associated waters. Near the ore processing plants are situated two towns, Novoorlovsky and Staroorlovsky with 40,000 inhabitants in total.
We will use the abandoned Orlovka mine district as a "natural laboratory" to develop methods of risk prevention and to provide exploration companies and government agencies with information on potential prospects. We will critically review, compile and restructure the vast existing information on the deposit area, supplemented by our own new data. We will study the Orlovka district in the field and by state-of-the-art laboratory methods, will summarize all data obtained during the proposed programme in the form of environmental, mineralogical, and geochemical databases and develop a geoenvironmental model of the Orlovka deposit. The major product of this research will be a GIS based expert system created on the basis of envisaged project results including all thematic maps compiled, mathematical modelling, and experimental simulation (leaching, sorption/desorption, solubility, permeability). Such a modern expert system can be used for monitoring the transport and distribution of potentially toxic elements in the system: bedrocks - mineralised rocks - weathered rocks - soil - water - vegetation - air within the Orlovka contaminated lands.