Open-pit mining
After mining finishes, the mine area may undergo land rehabilitation. Waste dumps are contoured to flatten them out, to further stabilise them. If the ore contains sulfides it is usually covered with a layer of clay to prevent access of rain and oxygen from the air, which can oxidise the sulfides to produce sulfuric acid, a phenomenon known as acid mine drainage. This is then generally covered with soil, and vegetation is planted to help consolidate the material. Eventually this layer will erode, but it is generally hoped that the rate of leaching or acid will be slowed by the cover such that the environment can handle the load of acid and associated heavy metals. There are no long term studies on the success of these covers due to the relatively short time in which large scale open pit mining has existed. It may take hundreds to thousands of years for some waste dumps to become "acid neutral" and stop leaching to the environment. The dumps are usually fenced off to prevent livestock denuding them of vegetation. The open pit is then surrounded with a fence, to prevent access, and it generally eventually fills up with ground water. In arid areas it may not fill due to deep groundwater levels. Instead of returning the land to its former natural state, it may also be reused, converting it into recreational parks or even residential/mixed communities.
Soil mechanics
The common clay minerals are montmorillonite or smectite, illite, and kaolinite or kaolin. These minerals tend to form in sheet or plate like structures, with length typically ranging between 10 m and 4x10 m and thickness typically ranging between 10 m and 2x10 m, and they have a relatively large specific surface area. The specific surface area (SSA) is defined as the ratio of the surface area of particles to the mass of the particles. Clay minerals typically have specific surface areas in the range of 10 to 1,000 square meters per gram of solid. Due to the large surface area available for chemical, electrostatic, and van der Waals interaction, the mechanical behavior of clay minerals is very sensitive to the amount of pore fluid available and the type and amount of dissolved ions in the pore fluid. To anticipate the effect of clay on the way a soil will behave, it is necessary to know the kinds of clays as well as the amount present. As home builders and highway engineers know all too well, soils containing certain high-activity clays make very unstable material on which to build because they swell when wet and shrink when dry. This shrink-and-swell action can easily crack foundations and cause retaining walls to collapse. These clays also become extremely sticky and difficult to work with when they are wet. In contrast, low-activity clays, formed under different conditions, can be very stable and easy to work with.