• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2004

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of geochemical approaches for investigating and assessing heavy metal contamination in abandoned mine sites. Major sources of contaminants at the abandoned mine sites are mine water, waste rocks, tailings, and chemicals used in beneficiation and mineral processing. Soil, sediment, surface and ground water, and ecological system can be contaminated by heavy metals, which are transported due to erosion of mine waste piles, discharge of acid mine drainage and processed water, and dispersion of dust from waste rocks and tailings. The abandoned mine sites should be characterized using various methods including chemical analysis, mineralogical analysis, acid generation prediction tests, leaching/extraction tests, and field tests. Potential and practical environmental impacts from the abandoned mines should be assessed based on the site characterization.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1D
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• pp.83-91
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• 2008

This study establishes the model to estimate a work time and a machine equipment combination in a NATM tunnel. Also it includes the increasing rate of haulage distance in the model for to make near to reality model. A simulation model focuses on the mucking process which affects the work effectiveness very highly to plan of machine use in tunneling operation. With the analysis of work effectiveness through tunnel simulation model, it is defined the problem of planning phase. Also it shows the optimal working time and efficiency of machine used through change the number of dump truck and haulage distance.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.38-58
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• 2018

The ventilation system plays a crucial role in underground mine safety. The main objective of the ventilation system is to supply sufficient air to dilute the contaminated air at working places and consequently provide tenable environment during the normal operation, while it also should be capable of controlling the fire propagation and facilitate rescue conditions in case of fire in mines. In this study, a smoke control fan was developed for the auxiliary ventilation as well as the fire smoke exhaust. It works as a free-standing auxiliary fan without tubing to dilute or exhaust the contaminated air from the working places. At the same time, it can be employed to extract the fire smoke. This paper aims to examine the smoke control efficiency of the fan when combined with the current ventilation system in mines. A series of the site experiments and numerical simulations were made to evaluate the fan performance in blind entry development sites. The tracer gas method with SF6 was applied to investigate the contaminant behavior at the study sites. The results of the site study at a large-opening limestone mine were compared with the CFD analysis results with respect to the airflow pattern and the gas concentration. This study shows that in blind development entry, the most polluted and risky place, the smoke fan can exhaust toxic gases or fire smoke effectively if it is properly combined with an additional common auxiliary fan. The venturi effect for smoke exhaust from the blind entry was also observed by the numerical analysis. The overall smoke control efficiency was found to be dependent on the fan location and operating method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1440-1445
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• 2008

There are 21 abondoned coal mines drained out mine water in gyeong sang do. We monitored the water quality of 31 mine drainage from 1995. The most of mine drainage was neutral as the average pH was 6.22 and Fe, Mn, Al concentration was below 10mg/L. The result showed the tendency of decreasing of flow and metal concentration. The highest Mn concentration was detected in bonghwa area and the hightest Fe concentration was detected in munkyung area. It means that the water quality is closly related to geological features.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.9-15
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• 2018

Since the rock fragmentation by blasting can affect the subsequent processes including loading, hauling and secondary crushing, its control is essential for the assessment of blasting efficiency as well as production cost. In this study, we were analyzed the rock fragmentation by the direction of artificial joint. The underground blasting experiments were performed after forming the vertical and horizontal artificial joints. The blast fragmentation was conducted by the split-desktop which is a 2D image processing program. As a result, it was found that the horizontal artificial joint was evaluated to have lower overall the size of muck pile than the vertical artificial joint and the distribution of the size of muck pile was varied. It is possible that the direction of artificial joint could suppress the occur of oversize muck pile and control to a certain size or less.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.31-38
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• 1997

Temporal and spatial comparisons of acid mine drainage contaminated waters are difficult because of the complex physico-chemical nature of the pollutant. In the present study, an acid mine drainage index has been developed and evaluated for the assessment of surface waters. AMD index is calculated using a modified arithmetic weighted index using seven parameters which are most indicative of AMD contamination, i. e. pH value, sulphate, iron, zinc, aluminum, copper and manganese. Weighting is used to express the relative indicator value of each parameter. The proposed AMD index is used to quantify contamination from acid mine drainage over ten different old mine sites and assess the degree of impact on surface on surface waters. As a result of AMD evaluation, the Sukbong Mine located near the Moonkyung province showed lowest AMD value indicating the worst acid mine drainage quality. In overall, Youngdong mine sites showed higher contaimination compared to the other mine sites including Youngsuh, Choongbu, Suhbu and Nambu area.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2002

Geophysical surveys(self-potential, electromagnetic, electrical resistivity, and seismic refraction methods) were performed to delineate the flow channel of leachate from a AMD (acid mine drainage) by correlating the anomalies to geochemical characteristics at an abandoned mine (Jangpoong mine). The geophysical responses attempted to be correlated with water sample analysis data(pH, EC, heavy metals, ${SO_4}^{-2}$). Electrical dipole-dipole resistivity sections represent the low-resistivity zone trending northwest, which indicates the leachate flow by AMD along the contact of the mine waste rock dump and the bedrock. From the overall points of geophysical and geochemical anomalies, it is summarized that the flow channel of leachate by AMD can be successfully imaged with composite interpretations on the geophysical and geochemical studies.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.325-337
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• 2002

We examined the contamination of stream water and stream sediments by heavy metal elements with respect to distance from the abandoned Backun Au-Ag-Cu mine. High contents of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Mn, and Fe) and aluminum in the waters connected with mining and associated deposits (dumps, tailings) reduce water quality. In the mining area, Ca and SO$_4$ are predominant cation and anion. The mining water is Ca-SO$_4$ type and is enriched in heavy metals resulted from the weathering of sulfide minerals. This mine drainage water is weakly acid or neutral (pH; 6.5-7.1) because of neutralizing effect by other alkali and alkaline earth elements. The effluent from the mine adit is also weakly acid or neutral, and contains elevated concentrations of most elements due to reactions with ore and gangue minerals in the deposit. The concentration of ions in the Backun mining water is high in the mine adit drainage water and steeply decreased award to down stream. Buffering process can be reasonably considered as a partial natural control of pollution, since the ion concentration becomes lower and the pH value becomes neutralized. In order to evaluate mobility and bioavailability of metals, sequential extraction was used for stream sediments into five operationally defined groups: exchangeable, bound to carbonates, bound to FeMn oxide, bound to organic matter, and residual. The residual fraction was the most abundant pool for Cu(2l-92%), Zn(28-89%) and Pb(23-94%). Almost sediments are low concentrated with Cd(2.7-52.8 mg/kg) than any other elements. But Cd dominate with non stable fraction (68-97%). Upper stream sediments are contaminated with Pb, and down area sediments are enriched with Zn. It is indicate high mobility of Zn and Cd.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.481-490
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• 2003

The objectives of this study are (1) to determine the extent and degree of As contamination of the water and sediments influenced by mining activity of the abandoned Au-Ag mines, (2) to examine As speciation In contaminated water, (3) to monitor variation of As contamination in water system throughout the dry and wet seasons, and (4) to investigate the As chemical form in the sediments through the sequential extraction analyses. Natural water(mine water, surface water and groundwater) and sediments were collected in six abandoned Au-Ag mine(Au-bearing quartz veins) areas. The contamination level of As in mine water of the Dongil(524${\mu}m$/L) is more higher than the tolerance level(500 ${\mu}m$/L) for waste water of mine area in Korea. Elevated levels of As in stream water were also found in the Dongil(range of 63.7∼117.6 ${\mu}m$/L.) and Gubong(range of 56.1∼62.9 ${\mu}m$/L) mine areas. Arsenic contamination levels in groundwater used by drinking water were more significant in the Dongil(11.3∼63.5 ${\mu}m$/L), Okdong(0.2∼68.9 ${\mu}m$/L) and Gubong(2.0∼101.0${\mu}m$/L) mine areas. Arsenate[As(V), $H_2AsO_4^-$] is more dominant than arsenite[As(III), $H_3AsO_3$] in water system of the most mine areas. The concentration ratios of As(III) to As(total), however, extend to the 95% in stream water of the Okdong mine area and 70∼82% in groundwater of the Okdong and Dongjung mine areas. As a study of seasonal variation in the water system, relatively high levels of As from the dongil mine area were found in April rather than in September. Sequential extraction analysis showed that As was predominantly present as coprecipitated with Fe hydroxides from sediment samples of the Dongjung and Gubong mine(35.9∼40.5%), which indicates its possibility of re-extraction and inducing elevated contamination of As in the reductive condition. In sediments from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwachon mine area, high percentage(55.2∼83.4%) of As sulfide form was found.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.71-85
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• 1997

There are approximately 500 abandoned mining sites in Korea. Abandoned mines cause various environmental and safety problems such as landscape damage, soil, groundwater and stream pollution by heavy metal, acid mine drainage and soil erosion. According to the survey, there are significant numbers of mines causing environmental problems in Korea. For a environmentally sound management of abandoned mines, the Soil Pollution Control Act should include the regulation concerning soil pollution and recovery standards of the abandoned mines. Also, comprehensive survey about abandoned mines, setting-up of tile recovery priority, finance for clean-up are necessary.