Tailings are mine wastes in the form of slurries stacked in mine sites abandoned after the exhaustion of ores. There are approximately 5000 abandoned mine sites in Korea, and tailings have become a serious environmental problem. Long-term environmental exposure of tailings can cause release of acidic and high concentrations of sulfate- and metal-contaminated water (acid mine drainage, AMD). Org...

A mine-tailings spill occurred on the island of Marinduque, Philippines, on 24 March 1996. Originating from the Marcopper Mine, tailings sludge flowed down the Boac River abruptly and during subsequent storm events. Most of the tailings material has since accumulated in the nearshore environment along the western coast of the island. Nineteen sediment cores were collected from this site and ana...

Since 1971, Island Copper Mine has been operating an open-pit mine, mainly for copper on the north shore of Rupert Inlet. Rupert Inlet is the most easterly inlet of Quatsino Sound on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia (Fig. i). The ore body was estimated to contain 250 million tons of reserves. Mining is proposed to be continued until 1996, at which time the reserves will have been dep...

the present study represents a first insight into the draa lasfar min (marrakech - morocco) to assess the degree of polymetallic pollution caused by anthropogenic activities (like mine extraction) and consequently the possible diffusion of heavy metals and to predict the risk of their mobility in the surroundings of the mine area. the edaphologic parameters ph and electrical conductivity (ec) w...

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 ...

soil contamination in the vicinity of the abandoned lakan lead and zinc mine was studied. the results showed that over the past decades, the environmental pollution was caused by lead, zinc tailings dam and acid mine drainage. the average of lead, zinc, cadmium, copper and nickel is 1295, 4273, 27, 185 and 92 mg/kg, respectively in the soils of tailings dam. these metals were continuously dispe...

Mining is one of the major causes of elevation of naturally-occurring radionuclide material (NORM) concentrations on the Earth's surface. The aim of this study was to evaluate the human risk associated with exposure to NORMs in soils from mine tailings around a gold mine. A broad-energy germanium detector was used to measure activity concentrations of these NORMs in 66 soil samples (56 from fiv...

.........................................................................................5 CHAPTER I-INTRODUCTION...................................................................7 APPENDIX A: Oxidative weathering alters trace element bioaccessibility in PM10 emissions from sulfide mine tailings..............................................................21 REFERENCES............................

Compost-assisted phytostabilization has recently emerged as a robust alternative for reclamation of metalliferous mine tailings. Previous studies suggest that root-associated microbes may be important for facilitating plant establishment on the tailings, yet little is known about the long-term dynamics of microbial communities during reclamation. A mechanistic understanding of microbial communi...

This study compares coal mine tailings management strategies using life cycle assessment (LCA) and land-use area metrics methods. Hybrid methods (the Australian indicator set and the ReCiPe method) were used to assess the environmental impacts of tailings management strategies. Several strategies were considered: belt filter press (OPT 1), tailings paste (OPT 2), thickened tailings (OPT 3), and...