Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or coal seam. Materials recovered by mining include bauxite, coal, copper, gold, silver, diamonds, iron, precious metals, lead, limestone, magnesite, nickel, phosphate, oil, shale, rock salt, tin, uranium and molbedium. Any material that cannot be grown from agricultural processes, or created artificially in a laboratory or factory, is usually mined. Mining in a widersense comprises extraction of any non renewable resource eg, petroleum, natural gas. Mineral resources are vital for the economic growth and development of the country. Minerals worth Rs. 73945 crore were produced in India in 2004-05. Opencast mining operations to result the minerals like limestone, bauxite, iron-, chromite, copper- ores and coal are getting more emphasis because of obvious reasons but are associated with various environmental concerns. One of the major environmental challenges is to handle and manage the huge volumes of overburden generated in the opencast mines. This paper presents the assessment of environmental impacts of overburden such as visual (aesthetics, landscape), soil erosion, ecological disruption, air and water pollution, safety, risk and health etc. Economic valuation aspects of environmental impacts of overburden are also briefly described in his paper.
