• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.129-143
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• 2009

In South Korea, Mine industries were encouraged to obtain the natural resource from 1960 to 1980. However, the depletion of natural resource and decreasing price have been caused by the voluntary closure of non-economical mines and a cut of their production since 1990. Harmful wastewater containing such heavy metals as iron, aluminum, arsenic, and cadmium are being discharged from abandoned pits and waste stone and tailing dumping sites following the closure of mines. Therefore, the objective of this paper suggests a policy of mine hazard prevention(PMHP) and method that allows the combination of new spatial data and as well as collected data on resources for the sustainable mine reclamation and management using EGIS/MGIS technique to develop an integrated plan and management techniques.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2006.02a
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• pp.27-36
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• 2006

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.21-33
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to review of environmental assessment of heavy metals derived from various metalliferous mines in Korea. As a results of national wide research for heavy metal contaminations in the vicinity of metalleferous mines, the main contaminants are mine waste materials including tailings. From the materials, toxic elements including As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn can be dispersed into downstream through wind and water. Thus, soils around the mines contain elevated levels of those elements, which are over the guide values for environmental regulation of soils in Korea. Arsenic is one of the most important elements contaminated by mining activities, to a less extent, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. In spite of remediation works for some metal mines by the government, there are still lots of abandoned mines which are necessary for reclamation of mining sites. This study also includes that metal concentrations in soils and tailings can be varied upon various decomposition methods including 0.1N HC1 and aqua regia and sequential extraction scheme, with differences in each element, too. This may be due to geochemical characteristics of the elements, such as solubility, mobility and chemical forms in the geochemical environment. Finally, it is suggested that a certain organization should be runned by Korean government for management of abandoned mines.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.75-80
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• 2005

Several metalliferous including Guedo mine, Manjung mine and Joil mine located at the upper watershed of Namhan river, were abandoned or closed since 1988 due to the mining industry promotion policy and thus disposed an enormous amount of mining wastes without a proper treatment facilities, resulting in soil pollution. In this research, total and fractional concentrations of heavy metals in mining wastes were analyzed and accordingly the degree of soil pollutions in the abandoned mine area were quantitatively assessed employing the several pollution indices. The mining waste samples from Guedo mine, Manjung mine and Joil mine recently abandoned were collected for the evaluation of the potential of water pollution by mining activities. Index of geoaccumulation fractional composition and removal efficiency of some heavy metals by different concentration of HCl treatment were analyzed. Index of geoaccumulation of Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni and Cr are 6, $4\~6,\;0\~6,\;4\~5$, 2 and 0 respectively. The index of geoaccumulation of Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu reveals the mining wastes has high pollution potential in the area. According to sequential extraction of metals in the mine wastes organic fraction of Cu, reducible fraction of Pb, residual fraction of Ni and Zn were the most abundant fraction of heavy metals in mining wastes.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 2009

The risk assessment for heavy metal pollutions were analyzed by using statistical techniques including correlation and cluster analyses. The contamination data in this investigation obtained were from the Chungcheongnam-do abandoned mines. The descriptive statistical analysis showed that the values of Pb and Zn were relatively higher than other heavy metal values. The detection of heavy metals by distance from abandoned mines within 1,000m were mostly As, Cd, Pb, and Zn. It was noted, especially, that Zn was even detected at 4,000m The results of coefficient correlation showed that Zn to Cd was the highest values. The cluster and dendogram analyses were generated. The results showed the two clear groups by heavy metal characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1-11
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• 2003

The objectives of this paper are to overview present status of soil pollution in Korea, to review the current policies and management strategies for soil pollution prevention and remediation of contaminated sites, and to suggest some recommendations to be considered toward more efficient policies. Soils in Korea are contaminated mainly by industrial facilities, landfills, underground storage tanks, abandoned/inactive mines, military camps, and other sources. Concentrations of most of soil pollutants were similar to the background levels, except for a few heavily contaminated sites such as industrial sites or abandoned/inactive mines. The Soil Environment Conservation Act (SECA), which was effective from 1995, provides a comprehensive legal framework for both preventing soil pollution and remedying contaminated sites in Korea. The Act includes various management policies such as the designation of standards and soil pollution policy area, soil monitoring networks, management of suspected contamination sources, and extended 'polluter-pays' principle. To make current policies more efficient and reasonable, some policies or strategies such as the establishment of national priority list, more detailed standards, risk-based cleanup goal, fund raise, soil erosion problem, and finally, integrity between soil and groundwater management frameworks may need to be pursued in the long term.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.155-160
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• 2016

The convergence process utilized both leaching and ion exchange techniques has been investigated for the heavy metals removal in the abandoned mine of Chungyang Province, Korea. The contaminated soil samples by heavy metals from Samkwang mine were analysed by statistical analyses. The highly contaminated soils was initially separated by the flotation process. The selectivity indices were increased with increasing flotation reagents. The selectivity of separation was then improved by the use of both leaching and ion exchange processes in order to extract the heavy metals. The results of this study showed that the higher the sulfuric acid concentration, the leaching rate of heavy metals was increased. The lecheate then was removed by the ion exchange method. The anticipating results might imply that convergence process utilized both leaching and ion exchange techniques would somehow apply for the removal of heavy metals in the abandoned mine.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.25-36
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• 2005

Several metalliferous and coal mines, including Myungjin, Seojin and Okdong located at the upper watershed of Okdong stream, were abandoned or closed since 1988 due to the mining industry promotion policy. Thus these disposed an enormous amount of mining wastes without a proper treatment facilities, resulting in water pollution in the downstream areas. Acid mine drainage (AMD) and waste water effluents from the closed coal mines were very strongly acidic showing pH ranges of 2.7 to 4.5 and had a high level of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) showing the ranges of 1,030 to 1,947 mg/L. Also heavy metal concentrations in these samples such as Fe, Cu, Cd and anion such as sulfate were very high. Concentrations of water soluble heavy metals in the Okdong streams were in the orders of Fe>Al>Mn>Zn>Cu>Pb>Cd, indicating Fe from the AMD and waste water effluents contributed greatly to the quality of water and soil in the lower watershed of Okdong stream. Copper concentrations in the effluents from the tile drainage of mine tailings dams were highest during the raining season. Water Pollution Index (WPI) of the surface water at the upper stream of Okdong river where AMD of the abandoned coal mines was flowed into main stream were in the ranges of 16.3 to 47.1. On the other hand, those at the mid stream where effluents from tailings dams and coal mines flowed into main stream were in the WPI ranges of 10.6 to 19.5. However, those at the lower stream were ranged from 10.6 to 14.9. These results indicated that mining wastes such as AMD and effluents from the closed mines were the major source to water pollution at the Okdong stream areas.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.651-660
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• 2007

Acid drainage has been recognized as an environmental concern in abandoned mine sites for long time. Recently, the environmental and structural damage by acid drainage is a current issue in construction sites in Korea. Here, the author introduces the type of damages by acid drainage in construction sites and emphasizes the importance of geoscience discipline in solving the problem. Metasedimentary rock of Okcheon group, coal bed of Pyeongan group, Mesozoic volcanic rock. and Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks are the major rock types with a high potential for acid drainage upon excavation in Korea. The acid drainage causes the acidification and heavy metal contamination of soil, surface water and groundwater, the reduction of slope stability, the corrosion of slope structure, the damage on plant growth, the damage on landscape and the deterioration of concrete and asphalt pavement. The countermeasure for acid drainage is the treatment of acid drainage and the prevention of acid drainage. The treatment of acid drainage can be classified into active and passive treatments depending on the degree of natural process in the treatment. Removal of oxidants, reduction of oxidant generation and encapsulation of sulfide are employed for the prevention of acid drainage generation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.329-338
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• 2013

The objective of this study is to investigate the contents and seasonal variation of arsenic in soils and crop plant(rice) in paddy fields around the abandoned metal mines in Korea. The soils were extracted by various methods including aqua regia, 1 M $MgCl_2$, 0.01 M $CaCl_2$ and 0.05 M EDTA to evaluate the relationships between soils and crop plants(rice). According to correlation analysis, statistically significant correlation with the four methods(p<0.01) were found in soils extracted by various chemical solutions and arsenic contents in soils were decreased in the order of 1M $MgCl_2$ > 0.01M $CaCl_2$ > 0.05 M EDTA. Biological accumulation coefficients(BACs) of rice stalks were higher than those of rice grain, and the coefficients under reducing(August) environment were higher than those under oxidizing conditions(October). Assuming the rice consumption of 315 g/day by farm households in Korea, the amount of daily intake of arsenic were estimated to be 77.8 ${\mu}g/day$. The daily intake of arsenic from the rice estimates up to 65% of ADI(acceptable daily intake) that the FAO/WHO Joint Food Additive and Contaminants Committee has set to evaluate their safeties.