Nitrogen limitation represents a major bottleneck during the revegetation of mine tailings. However, controls over key nitrogen-cycling genes in rhizospheric soils under differential vegetation management remain poorly understood. The abundance and transcriptional activity of nitrogen-cycling genes and the enzymatic activity of nitrogen transformation are mediated differentially during revegeta...

An appropriate sampling method that provides for the representation of the collected material and the reliability of results plays a crucial role in environmental monitoring. This is especially important in soil quality investigations on sites with a differentiated surface microrelief, as in the case of afforested post-arable soils that have a specific, deep furrow-and-ridge microrelief. The pr...

AIMS To study the effect that copper residues exert on bacterial communities and the ability of bacteria to colonize different microhabitats in abandoned tailing dumps. METHODS AND RESULTS We used the terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique, a culture-independent molecular approach based on PCR amplification of ribosomal genes, to compare the structure of the bacterial com...

This study assessed the geochemical impact of mine tailings reclamation on the quality of soils from the AngloGold Concession, Obuasi, Ghana. Soil samples from mine tailings reclamation sites were evaluated for the concentrations of plant nutrients and trace metals. Contaminations of trace metals, using geochemical pollution indices were used to assess possible effects on agriculture and liveli...

Deep sea mining tailings disposal is a new environmental challenge related to water pollution, mineral crust waste handling, and ocean biology. The objective of this paper is to propose a new tailings disposal procedure for the deep sea mining industry. Through comparisons of the tailings disposal methods which exist in on-land mining and the coastal mining fields, a new tailings disposal proce...

An approach for assessing the inhalation bioaccessibility of Pb in the PM10 size fraction is presented, using an in vitro simulated epithelial lung fluid to represent the extracellular environment of the lung. The developed inhalation bioaccessibility method (IBM) is applied to a range of urban surface soils and mining wastes obtained from Mitrovica, Kosovo, a site where impacts upon human heal...

The mining industry produces significant amounts of waste materials, with the greatest volumes generated during enrichment. These materials or by-products, tailings, may be used as alternative civil engineering reducing need for natural resources. In cold climates, frost behaviour is one critical functional requirement in applications. tailings classified sand, silty sandy clayey silt (EN ISO),...

The concentrations of As and Zn in 100 georeferenced soils uniformly distributed throughout the area affected by the spill from the Aznalcóllar mine (April 1998) were analysed at three depths (0– 10, 10–30, and 30–50 cm) and on four dates (autumn–winter 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2004). For an estimate of the geochemical background, 30 unaffected soils near the edge of the spill were also analysed a...

Embankment dams, particularly tailings dams, are nowadays usually placed in swampy areas often dominated by organic soils, such as peats. Structures construction on soft organic soils makes it necessary to calculate subsoil deformations with a special consideration of the water flow. The test results show that the relationship between flow velocity and hydraulic gradient is always nonlinear. Th...

The acid-forming potential of lead/zinc (Pb/Zn) mine tailings at Lechang City of Guangdong Province was studied using both net acid generation (NAG) and acid-base accounting (ABA) methods. The pyritic and total sulfur contents of the tailings were 12.6% and 18.7%, respectively. The mean acid neutralization capacity (ANC) was 63.5 kg H2SO4/t while three oxidized tailings samples had an ANC less ...