Integrated geophysical study for landfill mining: A case study in Denmark

In the last years the discipline of Urban Mining has been established, and the existing landfills may be now considered as a source of valuable commodities. For the estimation of the presence and amount of recyclable materials, a thorough exploration approach is strongly recommended. Non-invasive investigation methods are obviously preferred, due to the potentially high environmental impact of invasive methods in case of accidents. In this paper it is presented a case history from a landfill in Denmark. A set of geophysical surveys was performed to determine the presence of metals within the waste, and possibly define their location and depth. The integration of magnetic, geoelectric, and seismic data seem to be able to provide a reliable assessment of the presence of magnetic metals at around 8 m depth in the westernmost part of the landfill. More detailed exploration methods and modelling techniques will be required for a quantitative evaluation of the valuable volumes in place.