Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Release of technology critical metals during sulfide oxidation processes: the case of the Poderosa sulfide mine (south-west Spain)

Release of technology critical metals during sulfide oxidation processes: the case of the... Environmental contextNatural weathering of rocks may release technology critical elements (TCEs) to the environment, and anthropogenic activities can noticeably increase TCE release rates. We investigated acid mine drainage outflows from an underground sulfide mine in south-west Spain, reporting TCE concentrations orders of magnitude higher than those observed in natural waters. The findings improve our knowledge on mobility of TCEs in different geological settings.AbstractExtensive extraction of technology critical elements (TCEs) from the lithosphere and their use results in a growing dispersion and remobilisation of these elements within the environmental compartments. We investigated the concentration and mobility of different TCEs (rare earth elements (REEs), Sc, Y, Ga and Tl) in acid mine drainage (AMD) outflows from a massive sulfide underground mine in south-west Spain for around 2 years. High levels of TCEs were observed; average concentrations of 8.2mgL1 of REEs, 1.5mgL1 of Y, 80gL1 of Ga, 53gL1 of Sc and 42gL1 of Tl were reported, several orders of magnitude higher than those observed in natural waters. The TCEs source in the study site is primarily accessory minerals in the host rocks, although the contribution of Ga and Tl by sulfides cannot be discarded. A seasonal variability in TCEs is observed in AMD waters, although their maximum concentrations do not coincide with those of sulfide-related elements. TCEs seem not to be controlled by the precipitation of secondary minerals, but by the intensity of chemical weathering inside the mined zone. A positive correlation between REEs and the Si/NaK ratio seems to indicate that these elements are linked to resistant minerals to weathering. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environmental Chemistry CSIRO Publishing

Release of technology critical metals during sulfide oxidation processes: the case of the Poderosa sulfide mine (south-west Spain)

Download PDF
12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/csiro-publishing/release-of-technology-critical-metals-during-sulfide-oxidation-3TbzGxXeC5

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by CSIRO Publishing
ISSN
1448-2517
eISSN
1449-8979
DOI
10.1071/EN19118
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Environmental contextNatural weathering of rocks may release technology critical elements (TCEs) to the environment, and anthropogenic activities can noticeably increase TCE release rates. We investigated acid mine drainage outflows from an underground sulfide mine in south-west Spain, reporting TCE concentrations orders of magnitude higher than those observed in natural waters. The findings improve our knowledge on mobility of TCEs in different geological settings.AbstractExtensive extraction of technology critical elements (TCEs) from the lithosphere and their use results in a growing dispersion and remobilisation of these elements within the environmental compartments. We investigated the concentration and mobility of different TCEs (rare earth elements (REEs), Sc, Y, Ga and Tl) in acid mine drainage (AMD) outflows from a massive sulfide underground mine in south-west Spain for around 2 years. High levels of TCEs were observed; average concentrations of 8.2mgL1 of REEs, 1.5mgL1 of Y, 80gL1 of Ga, 53gL1 of Sc and 42gL1 of Tl were reported, several orders of magnitude higher than those observed in natural waters. The TCEs source in the study site is primarily accessory minerals in the host rocks, although the contribution of Ga and Tl by sulfides cannot be discarded. A seasonal variability in TCEs is observed in AMD waters, although their maximum concentrations do not coincide with those of sulfide-related elements. TCEs seem not to be controlled by the precipitation of secondary minerals, but by the intensity of chemical weathering inside the mined zone. A positive correlation between REEs and the Si/NaK ratio seems to indicate that these elements are linked to resistant minerals to weathering.

Journal

Environmental Chemistry – CSIRO Publishing

Published: Oct 2, 2019

There are no references for this article.