• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2011

The mineral phases precipitated in the swamp built for the treatment of the mine drainage of the Dalsung Mine were investigated to reveal the mineralogical changes from schwertmannite to goethite and related behavior of heavy metals. Our XRD results show that most schwertmannite were transformed to goethite except the small portions of the samples in the uppermost part. No significant morphological changes were observed in the samples during mineral transformation by SEM, indicating that this transformation process occurred not from dissolution-precipitation process, but in solid state. Among heavy metals sorbed or coprecipitated in the mineral phases, Pb and Cu concentrations were relatively higher compared with their concentrations in the mine drainage. The relative concentrations of other heavy metals show similar values. The heavy metal concentration in the minerals do not show noticeable differences from uppermost schwertmannite to lower goethite samples, indicating the transformation process without any leaching or additional sorption of heavy metals in the solid state.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.2 s.52
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• pp.187-196
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• 2007

The Dalseong acid mine drainage were studied focused on the characters of schwertmannite that controls geochemistry of the stream. Besides chemical analysis of stream water, particle size analysis, XRD SEM and TEM were performed on precipitates of streams and on wasted metalliferous ores. The AMD discharged from the abandoned mine reveals a decrease of pH and EC downward stream. Euhedral sulfur occurs as equigranular aggregates on the altered pyrite while fine acicula goethite coalesces to form cross, star, or starfish-like shapes. Water chemistry plotted on the Eh-pH diagram shows that schwertmannite and ferrihydrite are stable phases. Reddish brown precipitates consist of mostly schwertmannite with less goethite, whereas yellowish brown precipitates are composed of geothite with less schwertmannite. The particle size of precipitates ranges $d(0.1)\;0.861{\mu}m{\sim}3.769{\mu}m,\;d(0.5)\;3.984{\mu}m{\sim}15.255{\mu}m,\;and\;d(0.9)\;9.875{\mu}m{\sim}56.726{\mu}m$. Schwertmannite is characterized by equigranular spheric form. Pincushion or spicule with 100nm width and $200{\sim}300nm$length form on schwertmannite sphere with radial growth patterns. It is highly probable that reddish or yellowish brown precipitates formed in many AMDs may contain schwerhnannite. Because it can serve as sink for removing heavy elements by adsorption in AMD system, there is a need to correctly identify schwertmannite in precipitates and to characterize its phase stability.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2012

The $AsO_4$ ion in acid mine drainage has been known to substitute for $SO_4$ in schwertmannite and prevent schwertmannite from being converted to goethite. There have been studies on the heavy metal sorption on schwertmannite, but no experimental results have been reported on the characteristics of heavy metal sorption on $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite. In this study, we conducted sorption experiments of Cu, Pb, and Zn on the $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite at pH 4 and 6 in the solution of 3, 10, 30, and 100 mg/L concentrations. For all heavy metals, the sorbed heavy metals significantly increase at pH 6 compared with at pH 4. At both pH 4 and 6, Pb shows the highest sorption capacity and those of Cu and Zn are similar. With increasing time, the sorbed heavy meal contents increase too. However, in the case of Zn, the most sorptions occur at the initial stage and no significant increase is observed with time. Among the concentration ranges in which we conducted the experiment, the increasing trend is clear in high concentrated solutions such as 100 mg/L. We applied several sorption kinetic model and it shows that the diffusion process may be the most important factor controlling the sorption kinetics of Cu, Pb, and Zn on $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite. Considering the previous results that pure schwertmannite has similar sorption capacity for all three heavy metals at pH 6 and has higher sorption capacity for Cu and Pb than Zn at pH 4, our experiments indicates that substitution of $AsO_4$ for $SO_4$ on schwertmannite changes surface and sorption characteristics of schwertmannite. It also shows that $AsO_4$ contributes not only to the stability of schwertmannite, but also to the mobility of heavy metals in acid mine drainage.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.531-540
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• 2022

Various iron minerals that precipitate in acid mine drainage have a great influence on the concentration change and mobility of trace elements in the drainage during phase transition to other minerals as well as the precipitation process. This study investigated the change of mineral properties and the behaviors of trace elements influenced by pH and time for the precipitates collected from the acid mine drainage treatment system of the Dalsung mine, where schwertmannite is mainly precipitated. However, the main mineral precipitated in the drainage was goethite, suggesting schwetmannite has already undergone a phase transition to goethite to some extent, and it was observed that at higher pH, the peak width at half maximum of XRD peak was narrower. This can be interpreted as the transformation of small amount of amorphous schwetmannite to goethite or an increase in the crystallinity of goethite, and it showed that the higher the pH, the greater this change was. The concentration of Fe was also greatly affected by the pH values, and as the pH increased, the concentration of Fe in the drainage decreased. With increasing time, the Fe concentration increased and then decreased, which can be interpreted to indicate the dissolution of schwertmannite and precipitation of goethite. This mineral change probably resulted in the rapid increase of the concentration of S at initial stage, but its concentration was stabilized later. The concentration of S is also related to the stability of schwetmannite, showing a high concentration at a low pH at which schwertmannite is stable and a low concentration at a high pH at which goethite is stable. The trace elements present as cations in the drainage also showed a close relationship with the pH, generally the lower the pH, the higher the concentration, due to the solubility changes by the pH, and the precipitation and the changes in mineral surface charge at high pH. On the other hand, in the case of As, existing as an anion, although it showed a high concentration at low pH, its concentration increased with time at all pH values, which is probably related to the concentration of Fe which can be coprecipitated in the drainage, and the increase of As concentration with time is also considered to be related to the decrease in schwertmannite rather than the mineral surface charge.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2004

Sulfates such as alunite and schwertmannite formed under oxidation condition play a important role in geochemical processes taken place at waste dumps and a creek from Dalseong mine, Daegu. Water chemistry shows pH decreases from upstream toward downstream creek, mainly due to formation of schwertmannite that is the most abundant phase along the creek. The removal of Al from the creek is preferentially attributed to formation of Al-bearing minerals and Al-sulphates. Among them, alunite is the most important Al-sink phase that occurs at higher pH than $pK_1$, Al hydrolysis constant. With high saturation index, alunite formed at the creek has a spherical form, commonly associated with schwertmannite. Secondary minerals formed on the surface of altered or weathered surfaces of heavy metals from the wasted dump that underwent severe oxidation, where alunite has characteristic habits which are spheric, radiating, and botrytis-like aggregates. Natroalunite occurs in association with alunite, or as mixtures of both of them. Because the pH decreases with distance due to formation of schwertmannite, although total contents of dissolved ions slowly lessen at least in the AMD, it is expected that the minerals precipitated at the creek can be exposed to subsequent dissolution, which may induce possible environmental problems.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2010

The sorption of $AsO_4,\;SeO_3,\;CrO_4$ on schwertmannite and thermal analysis of sorbed samples were carried out. The results of sorption experiments showed that sorption characteristics of those three oxyanions on schwertmannite can be divided into two groups. The extent of sorption of $AsO_4$ and $SeO_3$ were 100% at up to 1 mM solution concentration, and they increased no more significantly. This can be interpreted as $AsO_4$ and $SeO_3$ substituting $SO_4$ in schwertmannite strucure by the ratio of 1 : 1. The extent of the sorption of $CrO_4$ was much lower than those of other two oxyanions. Thermal analysis was performed using two kinds of sorbed samples at 0.1 and 1.25 mM concentrations. The results of the thermal analysis showed that the samples sorbed by three different oxyanions have different thermal characteristics. The samples sorbed by $AsO_4$ showed smaller weight loss around $600^{\circ}C$ than the original loss of pure schwertmannite, and it is attributed to the substitution of $AsO_4$ for $SO_4$, which was caused by the loss of $SO_4$, than pure schwertmannite due to the substitution of $SO_4$ by $AsO_4$. It also showed additional weight loss around $600^{\circ}C$ due to the decomposition of $AsO_4$ at that temperature. The weight loss of samples sorbed by $SeO_3$ started at slightly lower temperature than that sorbed by $SO_4$ and kept that loss at wider temperature range, probably indicating that the decomposition of $SeO_3$ occurs at slightly lower temperature. However, for the samples sorbed by $CrO_4$, the weight loss caused by the decomposition of $SO_4$ was also smaller and there was no additional weight loss at higher temperature due to the thermal stability of $CrO_4$, indicating that $SO_4$ was also substituted by $CrO_4$ in schwertmannite. Sorption experiment and thermal analysis indicate that $CrO_4$ sorbs on schwertmannite by substiuting $SO_4$, but the affinity to $SO_4$ or instability of $CrO_4$ in scwertmannite structure probably prohibit perfect 1 : 1 substitution.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.579-598
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• 2019

We investigated geochemical contaminants and Fe, Al behavior in precipitates of acid mine drainage (AMD) from the Donghae abandoned coal mine, Taebaek, Gangwon Province using aqueous chemical analyses, XRD, IR, and ²⁷Al NMR, Our results showed that water chemistry changed with pH and Eh, and saturation indices of chemical species in the AMD. According to saturation calculated by visual MINTEQ, the AMD was saturated with various Fe-, Al-oxyhydroxide minerals. Reddish brown precipitates are composed of schwertmannite, ferrihydrite, and goethite, whereas whitish precipitates are composed mostly of alumimous minerals such as poorly crystallized basaluminite with trace Al₁₃-Tridecamer. It is important to apply active treatment methods rather than simple storage pond and to control the precipitation and solubility of iron species and aluminous species for ensuring remediation and control for the AMD discharged from the Donghae abandoned coal mine.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.173-182
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• 2018

The precipitation and phase transformation processes of iron minerals in acid mine drainage have a great influence on the behavior of trace elements in drainage. However, it is not easy to accurately trace these processes in natural environments, and therefore, most studies have carried out in the laboratory to obtain the information on the precipitation and transformation of those minerals. In this study, the precipitation of minerals and the changes of trace elements in drainage water were investigated at different pH values in actual acid mine drainage collected from the Dalsung mine. The amount of some precipitated minerals was not enough for the mineral identification. However, from the minerals identified, amorphous minerals were formed first, and then goethite was precipitated probably from schwertmannite. When the pH of the sample was high (10), amorphous phases of minerals were still observed at even high pH (pH 10). With increasing time, the pH values decreased by precipitation and transformation of minerals. All the elements showed low concentrations at high pH (8, 10), which might be due to the precipitation of minerals at high pH and the effect of surface charge, and the concentrations of elements gradually increased with time. In the case of sulfur, it also increased in water due to the transformation of schwertmannite to goethite.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.163-183
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• 2019

We investigated acid mine drainage (AMD) of Bongyang abandoned coal mine, Danyang, Chungbuk Province with emphasis on geochemical contaminants in AMD and precipitates using chemical analyses, XRD, SEM, IR, and $^{27}Al$ NMR. Water chemistry changes with pH and oversaturation of chemical species. According to calculation of saturation index, the AMD is saturated with various Fe, Al minerals. Orange or orcher precipitates are composed of schwertmannite and goethite, associated with Leptothrix orchracea bacteria, whereas whitish precipitates are composed mostly of alumimous minerals such as basaluminite with poor crystallinity. The whitish precipitates include trace $Al_{13}$-Tridecamer. It is important to control the precipitation and solubility of aluminous species for ensuring remediation and control for the AMD discharged from the Bongyang abandoned coal mine.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2009

Mineralogical characteristics of secondary precipitate formed at some mineral water springs in Gyeongbuk Province, Korea were studied in relation to water chemistry. The chemical water types of mineral water springs are mostly classified as $Ca-HCO_3$ type, but $Na(Ca)-HCO_3$ and $Ca-SO_4$ types are also recognized. Ca, Fe, and $HCO_3\;^-$ are the most abundant components in the water. The pH values of most springs lie in 5.76${\sim}$6.81, except Hwangsu spring having pH 2.8. Saturation indices show that all springs are supersaturated with respect to iron minerals and oxyhydroxides such as hematite and goethite. The result of particle size analysis shows that the precipitate is composed of the composite with various sizes, indicating the presence of iron minerals susceptible to a phase transition at varying water chemistry or the mixtures consisting of various mineral species. The particle size of the reddish precipitate is larger than that of the yellow brown precipitate. Based on XRD and SEM analyses, the precipitate is mostly composed of ferrihydrite (two-line type), goethite, schwertmannite, and calcite, with lesser silicates and manganese minerals. The most abundant mineral fanned at springs is ferrihydrite whose crystals are $0.1{\sim}2\;{\mu}m$ with an average of $0.5\;{\mu}m$ in size, characterized by a spherical form. It should be interestingly noted that schwertmannite forms at Hwangsu spring whose pH is very low. At Shinchon spring, Gallionella ferruginea, one of the iron bacteria, is commonly found as an indicator of the important microbial activity ascribed to the formation of iron minerals because very fine iron oxides with a spherical form are closely distributed on surfaces of the bacteria. A genetic relationship between the water chemistry and the formation of the secondary precipitate from mineral water springs was discussed.