The natural abundances of the stable isotopes of lead are used to identify natural and industrial sources of lead in the coastal waters of British Columbia, Canada. The (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios, used to characterize the lead source, had values of approximately 1.24 for coastal oceanic water, approximately 1.22 for fjord waters receiving lead from mine tailings, and approximately 1.163 for waters ...

BACKGROUND A realistic estimation of the health risk of human exposure to solid-phase arsenic (As) derived from historic mining operations is a major challenge to redevelopment of California's famed "Mother Lode" region. Arsenic, a known carcinogen, occurs in multiple solid forms that vary in bioaccessibility. X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (XAFS) was used to identify and quantify...

Engineering microbial diversity to enhance soil functions may improve the success of direct revegetation in sulphidic mine tailings. Therefore, it is essential to explore how remediation and initial plant establishment can alter microbial communities, and, which edaphic factors control these changes under field conditions. A long-term revegetation trial was established at a Pb-Zn-Cu tailings im...

Toxic metalliferous mine-tailings pose a significant health risk to ecosystems and neighboring communities from wind and water dispersion of particulates containing high concentrations of toxic metal(loid)s (e.g., Pb, As, Zn). Tailings are particularly vulnerable to erosion before vegetative cover can be reestablished, i.e., decades or longer in semi-arid environments without intervention. Meta...

Mining tailings represent a generating source of rich heavy metal material with a potential danger the public health and the environment, since these metals, under certain conditions, can leach and contaminate aqueous systems that serve like supplying potable water sources. The strategy for this work is based on the observation, experimentation and the simulation that can be obtained by binding...

In the North of Tunisia, Hammam Zriba region represents an important mine activity zone, it is among the most important in the Maghreb . The mine tailings cause the environment degradation, so it had polluted the atmosphere, the soils, the vegetation, the water quality and the ecosystem of the Hammam ouady (Dry River) which is discharged directly in the Miliane River. The Miliane River represen...

Gold mining is a major source of metal and metalloid emissions into the environment. Studies were carried out in Krugersdorp, South Africa, to evaluate the ecological and human health risks associated with exposure to metals and metalloids in mine tailings contaminated soils. Concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), nickel...

altogether 20 groundwater samples were collected around the lakan pb and zn mine in iran. samples were analyzed for 8 constituents including fe, pb, hg, mn, zn, cn, so4 and cl using standard method. the results show that the average concentrations of constituents were 0.01, 0.60, 0.10, 0.01, 0.40, 35, 0.01 and 5.95 mg/kg for fe, mn, pb, zn, hg, so4, cn and cl, respectively. the computed contami...