• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.337-346
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• 2020

This study was carried out to evaluate the applicability of the soil washing process to remediation mercury-contaminated mine tailing or solid material (soil and sediments etc.) around abandoned mines. First, the physicochemical characteristics of mine tailing were analyzed through particle size analysis and sequential extraction. Secondly, laboratory scale washing experiments were performed using hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, potassium iodide and sodium thiosulfate. As a results of particle size analysis, mine tailing particle were concentrated below 40 mesh and the particle size below 200 mesh was the most analyzed. As a result of sequential extraction, elemental mercury fraction was analyzed as the highest with 69.12%, with strongly bound fraction 15.25% and residual and HgS fractions 11.97%, respectively. Laboratory scale washing experiments showed low applicability for nitric acid and sodium thiosulfate solutions. In case of hydrochloric acid solution, it was analyzed that mercury removal was possible at particle size of 200 mesh or more. Therefore, it is considered to be performed together with the physical sorting process. Potassium iodide solution was analyzed to have high washing efficiency at all concentrations and particle sizes. In particular, the mercury removal efficiency is high in the micro particles, and thus the applicability of the washing technology is the highest.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.112-118
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• 2012

Fine suspended solids from mine drainage draw attentions due to their potential adverse influences on the water quality, such as increasing turbidity and degrading aesthetic landscape. Currently, sand filter beds are adapted in some mine drainage treating systems. However, more efficient system is in demand, as the existing sand beds reveal some problems, such as frequent maintenance intervals. Various filtering mediums including fly ash, mine tailing aggregates and the sand were tested for improving the current system, using column experimental set-up. Mine drainage samples were collected from the current treating systems in the abandoned H coal mine. The experiment was run for 7 days. Suspended solids recorded as 100.9 mg/L and the value exceeds the current standard, 30 mg/L. Sand was proved to still be the optimum medium for the fine suspended solids, compared to fly ash and fly ash + sand. Mine tailing aggregates were placed at the exit of the columns, substituting gravels. The tailing aggregates is made by mine tailings and clay. Sand bed filters can also be improved by mixing granular activated carbon, which was found to be economical and efficient in the batch experiment, conducted at the same time.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2007

Vitrified aggregates obtained by using mine tailings were evaluated using various leaching methods to assess their environmental safety. The leaching tests in this study include continuous batch leaching, Dutch availability leaching, pH-stat and tank diffusion test as well as TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure), which is commonly adopted. Vitrification technique has successfully been applied treating some solid wastes containing high level of heavy metals, such as EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) dust and mine tailings. The potentially most leachable element among trace metals was As and theoretically about 7% of total concentrations in the aggregate can be released under extreme condition. Zinc was leached about 4% and the other trace metals including Cd, Cr and Pb were hardly released from the vitrified mine tailing aggregate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2005

An extensive numerical analysis is carried out to investigate the slope stability of the wasted mine tailing landfill constructed by the utilization of fine recycled-concrete aggregates. To do this, first, the physical and mechanical properties of the fine recycled-concrete aggregates and the wasted mine tailing are investigated, and the settlement and the change of material properly of the fine recycled-concrete aggregates resulted from reaction with water are also examined. The $OH^-$ elution from the fine recycled-concrete aggregates reacted with water slightly causes the change of material properties such as porosity, permeability and waster absorption, but the settlement does not happen noticeably. The results of numerical analysis of the landfill slope built with wasted mine tailing and recycled-concrete aggregates in alternate layer indicate that slope stability increases with decreasing the slope ratio, with decreasing the groundwater level inside slope, and with increasing the depth of fine recycled-concrete aggregate layer. Based on this study, thus, engineers working in related to the wasted mine tailing landfill design and construction using the fine recycled-concrete aggregates should be considered the slope ratio, the groundwater level, the depth of fine recycled-concrete aggregate layer.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2006

Objective of this research was to assess the release characteristics of metals from the mine tailing to base the prediction of metal load potential from tailing to soils. Water-soluble concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn released from mine tailing after 2 hrs were 2.31, 129.38, 17.17, and 287.53 mg/kg, respectively, as compared to 1.6, 128, 108, and 142 mg/kg that were extractable by 0.1 M HCl. Kinetics of metal releases followed the power function model significantly indicating that more of water soluble fractions of those metals released at the initial short time, followed by a slow increase. Concentrations of metals released from tailing by water and 0.1 M HCl were in the orders of Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd. The breakthrough curve from the column experiment showed that concentrations of Cd, Cu, and Zn reached at highest after one pore volume, but that of Pb reached highest after five pore volumes when 0.1 M HCl was used as eluent. The release rate of Cd from mine tailing was the fastest but Pb was the slowest. The cumulative mass of metal released by 0.1 M HCl was in the order of Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd after nine pore volume elution.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.54-70
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• 2024

Utilization of completed open-pit for mining waste disposal is an alternative method of tailing storage facility (TSF), which can minimize the area and cost required for the installation of TSF. However, long-term tailing disposal into open-pit has a potential risk of reducing mechanical stability of surrounding rock mass by acting as an additional load. In this research, a realistic open-pit tailing disposal scenario of 60,400 hours was established based on the case of Marymia gold mine, Australia. Mechanical stability of surface pillar between open-pit and underground stope was analyzed numerically by using Sigma/W, under different stope geometry and rock mass conditions. Simulation results showed that long-term tailing disposal into open-pit can significantly increase the failure probability of surface piller. This result suggests that mechanical stability of mine geometry should be conducted beforehand of open-pit tailing disposal.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.16 no.1 s.75
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• pp.44-53
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• 2007

The Jeonju-Il mine tailings contain large quantities of $SiO_2\;and\;Al_2O_3$ and lesser quantities of metallic components. In this study, we studied about the possibility of using mine tailings as a raw material in various industries. it was found that the sintered mine tailings had a good quality in every respect such as chromaticity, firing shrinkage and water absorption etc. Therefore if can substitute clay mineral in the ceramic industry. Also it can substitute about 2.94% of the raw materials of ordinary portland cement. We can use the coarse tailing as the fine aggregate for the ready-mixed mortar; and the fine tailing, as the filler for the bituminous paving mixture; because both products were not only suitable for Korea industrial standard in quality, but also environmentally harmless.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.183-193
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• 2006

Several metalliferous and coal mines, including Seojin and Okdong located at the Kangwon province, were abandoned or closed since 1989 due to the mining industry promotion policy and thus disposed an enormous amount of mining wastes without a proper treatment facilities, resulting in water and soil pollution in the downstream areas. However, no quantitative assessment was made on soil and water pollution by the transport of mining wastes such as acid mine drainage, mine tailing, and rocky waste. In this research, total and fractional concentrations of heavy metals in mining wastes were analyzed and accordingly the degree of water and soil pollutions in the stream area were quantitatively assessed employing the several pollution indices. Concentrations of Ni, Cd, and Pb in soils near the abandoned coal mine areas were 1,240.0, 25.0 and 1,093.0 mg/kg, respectively, and these concentrations were higher than those in soils near the closed metalliferous mine areas. Also Cu concentrations in soils near the tailing dams were about 1967 mg/kg, which is considered as very polluted level. Results demonstrated that soil at the abandoned mine areas were highly contaminated by AMO, tailing, and effluents of the mining wastes. Therefore, a prompt countermeasure on the mining waste treatment and remediation of the codntaminated water and soil should be made to the abandoned or closed metalliferous and coal mines located at the abandoned mine area.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.28 no.B
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• pp.65-69
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• 2008

The tailings piled in abandoned mines are well-known potential sources of soil contamination. Hydrated limes were applied as cementing materials to solidify heavy metal contaminated tailings for the purpose of reducing their toxicity and migration rates. The optimum mixing ratio of tailings, hydrated lime, and water was determined through a preliminary test. The mixtures of mine tailings and hydrated lime solidified through pozzolanic reaction were tested for their durability against repeated freezing and thawing processes. After repeated freezing and thawing, the uniaxial compressive strengths of all the solidified mixture specimens decreased in comparison with those before test but still higher than $3.5kgf/cm^2$, the standard recommended for land reclamation solids by EPA(Environmental Protection Agency), which suggested that hydrated lime be a potential material to treat the abandoned mine tailings for the environmental purpose.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.501-504
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• 2003

Sulfur isotope composition was used to identify the sources of groundwater contamination near abandonded coal mines. From the analysis of mine adit drainages, tailing seepages, and spring waters near the abandonded Hambaek and Hanchang coal mines in Kangwon Province, it was inferred that it the highly possible source of the contamination of spring water is acid mine drainage(AMD). Sulfur isotope composition showed that seepage from tailings seemed to have more effect on the groundwater contamination than mine adit drainage, which suggests the remediation and anti-contamination methods of tailing seepages not only mine adit drainage are required.