• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.407-416
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• 1997

Soil, tailings, stream sediment and surface water samples collected in the vicinity of the Geumwang Au-Ag mine were analyzed in order to investigate the pollution level of heavy metals and to determine the dispersion patterns. Although the maximum concentrations of soils collected at the flotation plant and tailings dam were 9,270 ppm As, 17 ppm Cd, 1,480 ppm Cu, 10,080 ppm Pb and 18,400 ppm Zn, dispersion of heavy metals were limited in the vicinity of the flotation plant and tailings dam. This may be due to high pH values (> 8.0) of the soils by flotation solution for mineral processing. The pH values of water samples near the flotation plant and tailings dam were over 8.0 and Cd, Cu and Zn concentrations were not detected. The waters in the vicinity of Geumwang mine generally belong to a $Ca^{2+}-SO_{4}{^{2-}}$ $(HCO_3{^-})$ type.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.52-55
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• 2003

The objective of this study is to investigate the vertical variation of heavy metals in tailings from the Sangdong W mine. Tailings samples were taken at 6 drilling sites with 50cm intervals up to 21meters in depth and dried at room temperature. The pH value, loss-on-ignition and water contents were measured. In addition, chemical compositions of the samples were determined by AAS after 0.1N HC1 leaching and ICP-AES after aqua regia leaching. The pH values were in the range of 7.2 to 8.5 due to chemical reactions of carbonate minerals. The ranges of heavy metals (mg/kg) extracted by 0.1N HC1 were from 0.17 to 0.93 for Cd, 0.04 to 4.39 for Cu, 0.03 to 10.9 for Pb and 0.06 to 14.1 for Zn and those extracted by aqua regia were 3.10~10.5, 23.61 ~251, 63.7~337 and 42.6~134 for Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn, respectively. Generally, the metal concentrations in tailings do not change with depth, with they have a tendency to decrease with depth in some case.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.371-377
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• 1997

This paper presents the geophysical applications to the environmenml problem in an abandoned mine area. We would like to focus our attention on the mapping of the soil contamination and the detection of the buried mine tailings. For mapping the soil contamination. measurements of both in-situ magnetic susceptibility (k) and terrain conductivity were carried out. In-situ magnetic susceptibilities of the contaminated soil due to the acid mine drainage show higher values than those of the uncontaminated area. However. those data do not show the correlation with the degree of the soil contamination observed on the surface. The least-squares fitted formula obtained with the measured insitu magnetic susceptibilities is $k=4.8207{\times}W^{0.6332}$, where W is the $Fe^{+2}$ weight percentage. This weight gives most effect to magnetic susceptibility of the soil. Lateral variations of the soil contamination in the shallow subsurface can be detected by the electrical conductivity distributions from EM induction survey. TDIP (Time Domain Induced Polarization) and EM induction surveys were conducted to detect the buried mine tailings. From the results of TDIP, the spatial zone, which shows high chargeability-low resistivity, is interpreted as the buried mine tailings. Therefore, it is concluded that it is possible to discriminate the spatial zone from the uncontaminated ground.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.30 no.A
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

Polymeric materials in addition to Portland cement and hydrated limes were used to solidify heavy metal contaminated tailings from five abandoned metal mines in Korea. Mine tailings were mixed separately with Portland cement and hydrated lime at a concentration of 20-30 wt% and 6-9 wt%, respectively and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate(EVA) powder was added to each specimen at a ratio of 2.5 and 5.0 wt% to binders. Polymer-added and polymer-free solidified forms were evaluated for their appropriateness in accordance with the suggested test methods. Regardless of addition of polymeric materials, all solidified forms satisfy the uniaxial compressive strength(UCS) requirements(0.35MPa) for land reclamation and show remarkably reduced leaching concentrations of heavy metals such as As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn less than the toxicity criteria of Korean standard leaching test(KSLT). The addition of polymeric materials increased the UCS of solidified forms to improve a long-term stability of solidified mine tailings.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.5-9
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• 2021

Comprehensive utilization of sulfur-containing iron tailings (SIT) not only solves environmental problems but also creates certain economic value. The iron element from SIT was enriched by the superconducting high gradient magnetic separation (S-HGMS) technology in this study. In the experiments, the total iron content (TFe) was increased from 26.3% to 60.5% with the total sulfur content (TS) of 5.9% under the optimal parameters, i.e., a magnetic flux density of 0.4 T, a slurry flow rate of 1500 mL/min. The high-quality sulfur-containing material with TFe of more than 60% was obtained, which can be used for preparing high-sulfur free cutting steel. The S-HGMS technology can realize the resource utilization of iron tailings with high added value.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.10-16
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• 2007

The slug test by adding water to well and measuring falling head was conducted to investigate the hydrogeological property of unsaturated or partially saturated mine tailings in the Imgi abandoned mine in Busan. In case that wells were installed with a full screen through two layers with different hydraulic properties, Bouwer and Rice method was useful to estimate the hydraulic conductivity and the depth of mine tailings. In particular, when groundwater dried out in the dry season, the slug test performed by adding water into well to form artificial water table and then conducting falling head test produced the reasonable hydraulic conductivity values. The slug test using falling head test can be an alternative to investigate the hydrogeological property of abandoned mine tailings.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.46-53
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• 2019

Cement mortar was hydrothermal-synthesized with particle size of tailings using scheelite tailings deposited without proper treatment, and its physical properties were investigated. The mixing ratios of water-cement and sand-cement were fixed at 75 % and 400 %, respectively, during preparing cemnt mortar, and the sand was replaced by the tailings at 0 ~ 50 %. The particle size of tailings was controlled at 9.3 ~ 53.0 ℃, and the hydrothermal temperature was kept at 60 ~ 180 ℃ for 6 hours after the temperature increased to pretermined temperature with 2 ℃ heating rate. The compressive strength increased with increasing hydrothermal temperature. The compressive strengths were 55.2 MPa and 54.5 MPa when the mortars were prepared with 30 % low arsenic and high arsenic tailings after 60 min grinding. The compresiive strenght was enhanced 300 % compared with reference sample.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.189-200
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• 2016

The Republic of Tajikistan has ten former uranium mining sites. The total volume of all tailings is approximately 55 million tonnes, and the covered area is more than 200 hectares. The safe management of legacy uranium mining and tailing sites has become an issue of concern. Depending on the performance requirements and site-specific conditions (location in an arid, semiarid or humid region), a cover system for uranium tailings sites could be constructed using several material layers using both natural and man-made materials. The purpose of this study is to find a feasible cost-effective cover system design for the Degmay uranium tailings site which could provide a long period (100 years) of protection. The HELP computer code was used in the evaluation of potential Degmay cover system designs. As a result of this study, a cover system with 70 cm thick percolation layer, 30 cm thick drainage layer, geomembrane liner and 60 cm thick barrier soil layer is recommended because it minimizes cover thickness and would be the most cost-effective design.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2012

Porous pellets for immobilizing heavy metals were manufactured from coal tailings and iron oxide powder. Coal tailings was pulverized and mixed with iron oxide powder. The mixed powder was granulated into spherical pellets and roasted. Over $1100^{\circ}C$, residual coal in coal tailings reduced iron oxide to ZVI(Zero-Valent Iron). The pellets have 34.63% of porosity, 1.31 g/mL of bulk density, and 9.82.urn median pore diameter. The pellets were reacted with synthetic solutions containing each heavy metals: arsenic(V), copper(II), chrome(VI), and cadmium(II), respectively. On the test of immobilizing heavy metal, the pellets made at $1100^{\circ}C$ were superior to the other pellets made under $1000^{\circ}C$. Immobilizing over 99.9% of 10ppm heavy metal solutions required I hour for arsenic, 2 hours for chrome, and 4 hours for copper. However, immobilizing capacity of cadmium was inferior to that of the other metals and it was decreased in reversely proportion to initial concentration of the solutions.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of eco-friendly/efficient recovery of valuable resources, such as Au from mine tailings, which are environmental pollutants in the Mongolian mine sector. For this purpose, this study selected 4 place of mine tailings of the Mongolian mines sector and carried out mineralogy evaluation of the valuable resources in the tailings. In this study, flotation was performed to separate and concentrate valuable resources in the tailings. Microwave nitric acid leaching was used to leach the valuable resources contained in the sample and to improve the Au grade. Chloride leaching attempted to leach Au from the leaching residues. XRD analysis of the tailings samples showed that most of the samples consisted of silicate minerals. As a result of confirming the content of the element through XRF analysis, the SiO₂ content was very high, the Fe₂O₃ content was 2.32-4.23%, and the content of PbO, CuO and ZnO components were all within 2%. As a result of flotation for the tailings samples, the recovery of Au was the highest in Bayanairag sample (95.38%). As a result of microwave nitric solution experiment on Au concentrate sample obtained by flotation, the content of Au in the microwave nitrate leaching residue increased by 12.15% from 192.72 g/ton to 216.14g/ton in Khamo sample, the highest increase was 57.58% in Bayanairag sample. TCLP tests on tailings generated after flotation showed dissolution characteristics within EPA. Chloride leaching test was performed to recover Au from solid residues. The leaching rate was 87.43-89.35% within 10 minutes. For Khamo sample, 100% Au was leached after 60 minutes of leaching time. Therefore, in order to process the tailings continuously generated in Mongolia, applying the same process as the present study is expected to effectively recover the valuable resources contained in the tailings.