Waste Heaps

Waste Heaps and Mining Spoil Mounds: These are artificial hills made from the unwanted rock, Shale and tailings that come up with coal, metal ore, stone or clay as part of mineral extraction or other industrial processes. Because the extraction industry is both deep and long-lived, single collieries or pits can generate tens of millions of cubic metres of spoil; pushed out by locomotive, conveyor or tippler wagon and dumped in successive layers, the piles quickly become a distinctive landform. Found especially in regions with a long history of extractive industry, such as the Ruhr or Silesia.