Apart from introducing new techniques, other measures adopted for environmental abatement are: 14 zones covering 19430 hectares have been declared protected areas from prospecting or mining, construction of sedimentation barriers, catchment area treatment, creation of settlement basin and terraces to reduce silt flow into streams and rivers, minimum road building activity in the area of mining, creation of a vegetation barrier along roads and in the vicinity of the mines, adopt satellite remote sensing techniques for mapping and locating mining areas which would avoid road building for the purpose and completely re-vegetate the closed or fully extracted mines.