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Abandoned Surface Mine Arcology

Cheap quality digs for the rest of us...
  (+5, -2)
(+5, -2)
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against]

Start with a big terraced hole in the ground...

Homes/Shops: built against/into the walls.

Public Buildings/Schools, etc: built on the floor (or lower levels if the lake covers it all)

Transportation: (Internal) pave/cobble/brick existing access roads. Travel is by foot/bike/horse/low-speed electrics... and cablecars; (External)Regular automobile parking garage at the top, outside.

Landscape: Gross landscaping has already been done, but lots of topsoil required.

Recreation: stock existing groundwater lake with fishies. Swim/Fish/(unpowered)Boating. Waterfall and fresh water from wherever the water-table is. If by bad luck the water-table is even further down, well, you're still a lot closer to it than you would be if you built *up* instead.

Food:(Internal) terraced farming and aquaculture.

If the budget is big enough and the weather inclement, roof(glass) it over.

Caveat: not recommended if what was being mined there is poisonous.

FlyingToaster, Sep 17 2008

[link]






       Let's see... I would avoid any mine where the following were mined:   

       Cadmium (May displace essential zinc in amino acids)
Lead (Toxicity well-documented, similar to Cd)
Mercury (Toxicity well documented, see Pb & Cd)
Chromium (Cr+6 ions are a lung carcinogen)
Nickel (Carcinogen, stillbirths, respiratory cancers)
Copper (Kidney, liver, pancreatic, blood, respiratory disorders)
Cobalt (Hypothyroidism, blood disorders, heart disorders)
Uranium (Toxicity well-documented)
Beryllium (Lung disease)
Arsenic (Toxicity well-documented)
Iron (Haemochromatosis, diabetes, heart failure)
Aluminium (Kidney & Liver damage)
Barium (Birth defects, kidney, liver, brain, spleen disorders)
  

       I'm not sure what other mines that leaves you, other than gold and silver. Gold is usually found in conjunction with copper; Silver is usually in company with lead and zinc.   

       I like the idea, but I ain't going near the lake.
UnaBubba, Sep 17 2008
  

       I'll settle for coal :), but you make it sound like one of the prime industries would be electroplating using the lake.
FlyingToaster, Sep 17 2008
  

       They're the sort of things they mine from open cut mines.
UnaBubba, Sep 17 2008
  

       Use a shaft mine and you could call it Strangelove Gap.
ldischler, Sep 17 2008
  

       That I'm aware of for open pit, that is relatively benign once the dust settles:
Coal
Salt
Rock/Gravel
Assorted minerals (Feldspar comes to mind)
I'm sure there are others.
MechE, Sep 17 2008
  

       Concerning toxicity, interestingly there is a scheme near this place where an old polluted scrapyard was cleared, supposedly detoxed and built on, and is now used as a sink estate. The nature of the vegetation which grows there strongly suggests it isn't clean because it consists largely of species known to thrive in polluted soil and dynamic accumulators of elements poisonous to humans. I mention this because i've heard this is a common practice in this country and quite similar to this idea.
nineteenthly, Sep 17 2008
  

       Care to share where you got yer info about the kidney and liver damage from, [Bubs]? Thing is, Aluminium (full marks for non-US spelling, btw) ore, otherwise known as bauxite, is about the most inert substance you'll find. As in, incredibly high ammounts of energy to break the bonds, inert. I mean bauxite is simply Al2O3 in various states of Hydration, generally, mono-or tri hydrate. Not aware of any health risks, under any levels of exposure. I'm pretty sure you're talking about downstream (almost exclusively offsite) processing.   

       In point of fact, gold mines are much scarier in terms of chemicals used. Most gold mines still use leaching - floatation is simply too low yield in most cases.   

       Just sayin'
Custardguts, Sep 17 2008
  

       What you could maybe do, if it was poisonous, is line the pit with sand, light a huge fire to vitrify it, line that with soil, then build a dome on top and live in that.
nineteenthly, Sep 17 2008
  

       Derbyshire, UK, is full of limestone quarries which might be appropriate.
david_scothern, Sep 17 2008
  

       /light a huge fire to vitrify it/   

       bah. Nuke it from orbit. The only way to be sure.
bungston, Sep 17 2008
  

       "Derbyshire, UK, is full of limestone quarries which might be appropriate."   

       Sure, but then you'd have to live in Derbyshire :)
sambwiches, Sep 17 2008
  

       Derbyshire is low in iodine too. It's just over   

       there ------->   

       as well. It's also the only place in the known Universe with Blue John. That's a bonus. I have a lump of it only one metre from this finger here: `
nineteenthly, Sep 17 2008
  

       Google "aluminium toxicity". Bauxite is inert... free aluminium, as you'd find in leachates, is not.   

       PS. I should be able to spell it, I'm Australian.
UnaBubba, Sep 17 2008
  

       There are two former open-cut uranium mines near my uncle's place. One was extensively and expensively landscaped and rehabilitated. The other was abandoned and allowed to fill up with rainwater. It's now the recreation lake and picnic area for the town.   

       Signs at the picnic area indicate the water is safe to drink "in small quantities" and camping is safe "for periods not exceeding two weeks". Yes, those are quotes.   

       You still get a bun from me though, as long as we get to use those Derbyshire cheese mines.   

       It occurs to me that the good citizens of Coober Pedy have been doing this on a small scale for a few generations. Only without topsoil.   

       If the miners were good boys and girls, the original topsoil from the site should be stored somewhere nearby.
BunsenHoneydew, Sep 18 2008
  

       If you used Wirksworth, the bad vibes would kill you anyway, never mind any issues of toxicity.
nineteenthly, Sep 18 2008
  

       [+] because there just aren't enough good ideas that remind me of SimCity anymore.   

       Also, having grown up in West Virginia and watching mountaintop removal mining's effects, I would be a huge fan of anything, ANYTHING, that distracts from the deaths of those old hills.
shapu, Sep 18 2008
  

       Coober Pedy is different to this. The mines are little more than underground rooms, usually further enlarged to fit a house into the space. Above ground there's usually just a pile of rubble stone and a mailbox.
UnaBubba, Sep 18 2008
  
      
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