Plot Size and Sample Plot Location
A mobile modular pilot plant was designed and built to undertake pilot scale
continuous process evaluations for the proposed mine. In order to minimize disturbance to the natural environment, the processing plant and bulk sample sites
were located in degraded vegetation, which had been cleared for agriculture or
used for selective harvesting of tree species. Thus, a major limitation for rehabilitation experimentation is that the ideal sites were not particularly ideal, especially in that they were not selected for experimentation in rehabilitation.
However, this pilot plant and bulk sample program offered the opportunity to test
the potential rehabilitation strategies throughout the prospecting area.
These bulk sampling sites simulated mined conditions, where topsoil had been
removed, stacked in shallow mounds, and the sand mined to a variable depth
between 1 and 5 m. A total of seven pits were dug. Owing to size constraints at the
site, an optimal plot size of 3 9 3 m was chosen in order to set up sufficient plots
in the available space.
Planting Treatments
The constant factors or non-variables in each plot were as follows: all plots to be
covered with top soil and mulched (Fig. 13.5); all remnants of foreign debris to be
removed from the site; compacted soil to be ripped to a depth of greater than
250 mm and the final prepared surface to be furrowed to follow the natural contours of the land.
Fig. 13.5 Young plants laid
out in plots in a bulk sample
pit at the Toliara Sands using
a seaweed and sugar cane
waste mulch
206
R. A. Lubke
A mobile modular pilot plant was designed and built to undertake pilot scale
continuous process evaluations for the proposed mine. In order to minimize disturbance to the natural environment, the processing plant and bulk sample sites
were located in degraded vegetation, which had been cleared for agriculture or
used for selective harvesting of tree species. Thus, a major limitation for rehabilitation experimentation is that the ideal sites were not particularly ideal, especially in that they were not selected for experimentation in rehabilitation.
However, this pilot plant and bulk sample program offered the opportunity to test
the potential rehabilitation strategies throughout the prospecting area.
These bulk sampling sites simulated mined conditions, where topsoil had been
removed, stacked in shallow mounds, and the sand mined to a variable depth
between 1 and 5 m. A total of seven pits were dug. Owing to size constraints at the
site, an optimal plot size of 3 9 3 m was chosen in order to set up sufficient plots
in the available space.
Planting Treatments
The constant factors or non-variables in each plot were as follows: all plots to be
covered with top soil and mulched (Fig. 13.5); all remnants of foreign debris to be
removed from the site; compacted soil to be ripped to a depth of greater than
250 mm and the final prepared surface to be furrowed to follow the natural contours of the land.
Fig. 13.5 Young plants laid
out in plots in a bulk sample
pit at the Toliara Sands using
a seaweed and sugar cane
waste mulch
206
R. A. Lubke