• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.477-484
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• 2013

In order to recover gold from iron-hydroxide in acid mine drainage, a lead-fire assay has been used. Acid mine drainage is generated from mining waste rocks, and iron-hydroxide precipitates from acid mine drainage, which severely contaminates the area surrounding the mine. Iron-hydroxide samples contain on average 520.29 mg/kg of Fe, 4,414.62 mg/kg sulfur, and 16.19 mg/kg Au. In an XRD analysis, quartz and goethite were observed along with the iron-hydroxide. Using a lead-fire assay, the recovery of pure gold was on average 0.174 g/ton from the iron-hydroxide, whereas the gold not recovered in the process was on average 1.37 mg/kg. This unrecovered gold was lost to the glass slag due to the galena and lead formation. The galena and lead in the glass slag was identified through XRD.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.549-559
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• 2009

The objectives of this study are to investigate the biomineralization of goethite and lepidocrocite formed on the twisted-stalk and the sheathed-filament structure that is suggest microbe origin, and heavy metal in the yellow Fe-hydroxide. On the ratio of Cl and the Cl/Br ratios that are a pollution and non-pollution of groundwaters, it is indicated that the groundwater in this areas were relatively contaminated by human activity. The composition of the yellow Fe-hydroxide consisted mainly of $Fe_2O_3$ and $SiO_2$. The content of $Fe_2O_3$ ranges from 58.57 wt.% to 75.7 3wt.%, and $SiO_2$ content ranges from 5.8 wt.% to 16.17 wt.%. Heavy metal elements such as Zn(max. 6,160 mg/kg), Pb(max. 377 mg/kg), U(max. 503 mg/kg), Cr(max. 203 mg/kg), Cu(max. 77 mg/kg), V(max. 162 mg/kg), Ni(max. 105 mg/kg) were observed to be rich in those yellow Fe-hydroxide. The lath and platy crystals and needle-shaped crystals were clearly observed on the twisted-stalks and sheathed-filaments structure. The goethite, gypsum, and lepidocrocite were identified in the yellow Fe-hydroxide by x-ray powder diffraction.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.67-81
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• 2012

The physical, chemical, and biological properties of clogging materials formed within groundwater wells in the Mt. Geumjeong area, Busan, Korea, were characterized. The particle size distribution (PSD) of clogging materials was measured by a laser analyzer. XRD, SEM, and TEM analyses were performed to obtain mineralogical information on the clogging materials, with an emphasis on identifying and characterizing the mineral species. In most cases, PSD data exhibited an near log-normal distribution; however, variations in frequency distribution were found in some intervals (bi-or trimodal distributions), raising the possibility that particles originated from several sources or were formed at different times. XRD data revealed that the clogging materials were mainly amorphous ironhydroxides such as goethite, ferrihydrite, and lapidocrocite, with lesser amounts of Fe, Mn, and Zn metals and silicates such as quartz, feldspar, micas, and smectite. Reddish brown material was amorphous hydrous ferriciron (HFO), and dark red and dark black materials were Fe, Mn-hydroxides. Greyish white and pale brown materials consisted of silicates. SEM observations indicated that the clogging materials were mainly HFO associated with iron bacteria such as Gallionella and Leptothrix, with small amounts of rock fragments. In TEM analysis, disseminated iron particles were commonly observed in the cell and sheath of iron bacteria, indicating that iron was precipitated in close association with the metabolism of bacterial activity. Rock-forming minerals such as quartz, feldspar, and micas were primarily derived from soils or granite aquifers, which are widely distributed in the study area. The results indicate the importance of elucidating the formation mechanisms of clogging materials to ensure sustainable well capacity.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.177-189
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• 2003

The main purposes of this study are to utilize mineralogical studies such as optical microscope, XRD and SEM/EDS analyses to characterize the oxidation of sulfide minerals and the mechanisms controlling the movement of dissolved metals from waste rocks at the abandoned Seobo mine. Mineralogical research of the waste rocks confirms the presence of anglesite, covellite, goethite, native sulfur and nsutite as secondary minerals, suggesting that these phases control the dissolved concentrations of As, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn. The dissolved metals are precipitated, adsorbed and/or coprecipitated with(or within) Fe(Mn)-hydroxides and Mn(Fe)-hydroxides. The main phases of secondary mineral, Fe-hydroxide, can be classified as amorphous or poorly crystalline and more crystallized phases(e.g. goethite) by crystallinity. Amorphous or poorly crystalline Fe-hydroxide has relatively high As contents(9-24 wt.%). This poorly crystalline Fe-hydroxide changes toward more crystallized phase(e.g. goethite) which contains relatively low As(0.6-7.7 wt.%). These results are mainly due to the progressive release of As with the crystallization evolution of the As-trapping poorly crystalline Fe-hydroxides. It is also attributed to the differences of specific surface areas between the poorly crystalline Fe-hydroxides and well crystallized phases. The dissolved metals from waste rocks at Seobo mine area are naturally attenuated by a series of precipitation(as Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb), coprecipitation(Fe, Mn) and adsorption(As, Cu, Pb, An) reactions. The results of mineralogical researches permit to assess the environmental impacts of mine waste rocks in the areas, and can be used as a useful data to lay available mine restoration plan.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.45-52
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• 2002

Water chemistry in the Munkyeong hot-spring expresses high values of EC(1,857 $mutextrm{s}$/cm), $HCO_3$(1,250 mg/l), $SO_4$(147.60 mg/l), Mg(43.05 mg/l), and Ca(279.43 mg/l). The precipitates of small quantity is formed in lower temperature, but much of in case apply heat by boiler. Although mineral that is settled from original ground water is most calcite, aragonite and calcite at the same time crystallized in boiler. The $CO_3$ is present predominantly as $HCO_3^{-}$ and $H_2$$CO_3$, $SO_4$, Mg and Ca are present as free ion. Ca is saturated with respect to carbonate such as aragonite and calcite but slightly undersaturated with respect to anhydrite and gypsum Al is saturated with diaspore and gibbsite. The precitptates are composed of carbonate such as calcite and aragonite and amorphous Fe-hydroxide.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 2003

Arsenic contamination around Au-Ag mining areas occurs mainly from the oxidation of arsenopyrite which is frequently contained in mine tailings. In weathered tailings, oxidation of sulfide minerals typically results in the formation of abundant ferric (oxy)hydroxides or (oxy)hydroxysulfates near the tailings surface, and arsenic may be associated with these secondary precipitates. In this study, solid phases of arsenic in weathered tailings of some Au-Ag mines were investigated through the SEM/EDS and sequential extraction analyses. The stability of As solid phases and the leaching potential were assessed with the variation of pH and Eh conditions. Oxidation of sulfides in the tailings samples was indicated by depletion of S molar concentrations compared to As and heavy metals. Under XRD examinations, jarosite as an Fe-oxyhydroxysulfate was found in the tailings of Deokeum, Dongil and Dadeok, and scorodite as an As-bearing crystalline mineral was identified from Dadeok which has the highest concentration of As (4.36 wt.%). Beudantite-like phases and some Pb-arsenates were also found under SEM/EDS analysis, and most of As phases were associated with Fe-(oxy)hydroxides and (oxy)hydroxysulfates despite a few arsenopyrite from Samgwang and Gubong. Sequential extraction analysis also showed that As was present predominantly as coprecipitated with Fe hydroxides from Dongil, Dadeok and Myungbong (72∼99%), and as sulfides (58%) and Fe hydroxide-associated forms (40%) from Samgwang and Gubong. In the tailings leaching experiment, As was released with high amounts by the dissolution of As-bearing Fe(oxy)hydroxysulfates in the lowest pH (2.7) conditions of Deokeum, and by desorption under alkaline conditions of Samgwang and Gubong. Higher leaching rates of arsenite(+3) were found under acidic conditions, which pose a higher risk to water quality. Changes in pH and Eh conditions coupled with microbial processes could influence the stabilities of the As solid phases, and thus, time amendments or landfilling of weathered tailings may result in enhanced As mobilization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.38-39
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• 1999

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.208-222
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• 2001

Geochemical investigations on suspended amorphous iron oxide material from the Kwangyang gold mine and its surrounding area, Cheonnam, Korea have been carried out. The sediments samples were collected from 11 location along Kwangyang mine area and were air dried and sieved to -80 mesh. These samples consist mainly of iron, silicon and alumina. The Fe$_2$O$_3$ contents ranges from 17.9 wt.% to 72.3 wt.%. The content of Fe$_2$O$_3$ increase with decreasing Si, Al, Mg, Na, K, Mn, and Ti, whereas the contents of Te, Au, Ga, Bi, Cd, Hg, Sb, and Se increase in the amorphous stream sediments. Amorphous stream sediments have been severely enriched for As (up to 54.9 ppm), Bi (up to 3.77 ppm), Cd (up to 3.65 ppm), Hg (up to 64 ppm), Sb (up to 10.1 ppm), Cu (up to 37.1 ppm), Mo (up to 8.86 ppm), Pb (up to 9.45 ppm) and Zn (up to 29.7 ppm). At the upstream site, the Au content (up to 4.4 ppm) in the amorphous stream sediments are relatively high but those contents decrease with distance of mine location. The content of Ag (up to 0.24 ppm) were low in upstream site but those contents increase significantly in the downstream sites. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the samples have virtually no sharp and discrete peaks, indicating that some samples are amorphous or poorly-ordered. The quartz, goethite, kaolinite and illite were associated in amorphous stream sediments. The infrared spectra for amorphous stream sediments show major absorption bands due to OH stretching, adsorbed molecular water, sulfate and Fe-O stretching, respectively.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.689-698
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• 2021

Since the mine reclamation scheme was implemented from 2007 in Korea, various remediation programs have been decontaminated the pollution associated with mining and 254 mines were managed to reclamation from 2011 to 2015. However, as the total amount of contaminated mine drainage has been increased due to the discovery of potential hazards and contaminated zone, more efficient and economical treatment technology is required. Therefore, in this study, the adsorption properties of arsenic was evaluated according to the adsorbents which were derived from water treatment sludge(Alum based adsorbent, ABA-500) and granular ferric hydroxide(GFH), already commercialized. The alum sludge and GFH adsorbents consisted of aluminum, silica materials and amorphous iron hydroxide, respectively. The point of zero charge of ABA-500 and GFH were 5.27 and 6.72, respectively. The result of the analysis of BET revealed that the specific surface area of GFH(257 m²·g^-1) was larger than ABA-500(126~136 m²·g^-1) and all the adsorbents were mesoporous materials inferred from N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm. The adsorption capacity of adsorbents was compared with the batch experiments that were performed at different reaction times, pH, temperature and initial concentrations of arsenic. As a result of kinetic study, it was confirmed that arsenic was adsorbed rapidly in the order of GFH, ABA-500(granule) and ABA-500(3mm). The adsorption kinetics were fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model for all three adsorbents. The amount of adsorbed arsenic was increased with low pH and high temperature regardless of adsorbents. When the adsorbents reacted at different initial concentrations of arsenic in an hour, ABA-500(granule) and GFH could remove the arsenic below the standard of drinking water if the concentration was below 0.2 mg·g^-1 and 1 mg·g^-1, respectively. The results suggested that the ABA-500(granule), a low-cost adsorbent, had the potential to field application at low contaminated mine drainage.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.315-329
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• 2010

Characteristics of thermophilic bacteria and secondary materials on the pyrrhotite surface were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermophilic bacteria from an acid hot spring in Japan were incubated with pyrrhotite at $42^{\circ}C$, $52^{\circ}C$, and $62^{\circ}C$ respectively. SEM analysis of the reacted pyrrhotite showed that indigenous rod-shaped bacteria ranging from $0.4{\times}1.5{\mu}m$ to $0.3{\times}11.9{\mu}m$ in size were attached to the pyrrhotite surface at these temperatures with formation of secondary materials. Extracellular polymer substances were formed on the bacterial surface. We suggest that these polymers functioned as a capsule protecting bacteria from the extreme environment. Secondary materials such as elemental sulfur, Fe-hydroxide, S-Fe and O-P-Fe compounds were found on the pyrrhotite surface.