TN939 : Assessment of pollution potential of sulfide – carbonate lead and waste dump and its source determination
Thesis > Central Library of Shahrood University > Mining, Petroleum & Geophysics Engineering > PhD > 2019
Authors:
Mehdi Zare [Author], Ali Moradzadeh[Supervisor], Abolghasem Kamkar Rouhani[Supervisor], Faramarz Doulati Ardejani[Advisor]
Abstarct: Environmental problems caused by mine wastes have always been one of the most important issues in most developing countries. Perhaps the worst environmental problem associated with mine waste is the formation of acid to alkaline mine drainages and the transfer of toxic mextals into water and soil. Most studies in this regard have investigated the pollution caused by sulfide mine wastes, and the distribution and intensity of contamination have been examined in the surrounding areas, i.e. in surrounding soil and water. In these studies, the main sources of contaminations such as sulfide-carbonate waste dumps have received less attention. Thus, the first step in reducing the risk and proper management of these wastes is to have a proper understanding and knowledge of their environmental behavior. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the pollutant potential of the wastes of lead and zinc sulfide compounds with carbonate host in Anguran mine. The combination of geochemical, laboratory, mineralogical, and geophysical studies in this study allows us to obtain a comprehensive descxription of the geo-environmental properties of the waste dumps. For this purpose, 52 samples have been taken from 0-50 cm depths of different surficial parts of the waste dump, and then, have been analyzed by using the ICP-MS method to determine the concentration of elements and heavy mextals in the samples. Geochemical results from the modified degree of the contamination index (mCd) and ecological risk assessment indices (RI) indicate that these mine wastes contain significant amounts of toxic mextals such as arsenic, cobalt, chromium, nickel, lead and zinc that the average of each of these elements exceeds the permissible level in the environment. The pattern obtained from the contamination risk zonation shows that the northeast and southwest parts of study area have very high contamination risk, and in this regard, As and Cd elements have the highest contribution in this contamination. In this research, discriminant analysis has been used for prediction and classification of the risk of the toxic elements contamination in the waste dumps. The results show that As, Pb and Zn elements are the most important factors that the waste dumps can be classified according to the contamination level. This method can be a useful, fast, and cost-effective tool for monitoring and recovery plans in the future. The results of the modified acid-baxse static test show that waste dumps have a high neutralization potential. In this research, the mineralogical approach has been presented to predict the pollution potential and to determine the source of neutralization. The results of this approach have compared with the results of the static test. The comparative results show that calcite is the main source of neutralization, and the mineralogical approach has rendered good results in evaluating the neutralization potential of contamination. This approach is faster and simpler than the static test. Mineralogical and XRD studies have identified calcite as a major factor in the acid neutralization, and also, the SEM analysis results have indicated pyrite as the main source of acid mine drainage in the waste dumps. The EPMA results of the sulfide minerals have shown that sphalerite is the most important carrier of some toxic mextals. The geophysical results obtained from applying VLF, magnetometric and geoelectrical methods on waste dumps have shown that, due to the oxidation of the wastes, the generated alkaline mine drainage can contain dissolved mextals and major ions that increase the magnetic property and decrease the electrical resistivity in the geophysical results. The results of the analysis and speciation of the water samples taken from the study area have confirmed this matter, and also shown the most important factors affecting the electrical conductivity (EC) of the produced water from the Anguran mine waste dump are the increase of mextal ions concentration, anionic mextal complexes SO_4^(2-)and Na^+ and TDS that could be a significant reason for the increased conductivity of the geophysical results. Although the researchers' findings indicate that the conductivity is related to acid mine drainage, it has been concluded in this study that alkaline mine drainage can also be identified as conductive zones in the geophysical results.
Keywords:
#mine waste dumps #Pollution potential #Acid and Alkaline mine drainage #Heavy mextals #Discriminant analysis #Modified acid-baxse static test #geophysical Link
Keeping place: Central Library of Shahrood University
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