• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.189-194
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• 1998

Geochemical study was carried out to find out the distribution of metals and cyanide in soil in the vicinity of the abandoned Keum-Jung mine. Chemical analysis showed that content of As in soil around tailings exceeded 15mg/kg, Korean standard of soil contamination in the farm land. That means the contamination of soil by As is due to input of tailings. According to total decomposition of tailings, As was highly concentrated in tailings. However the water in tailings impoundment was changed to acidic and contaminated by metal and sulfate because the tailings in the top of the tailings impoundment had been oxidized. Acid mine drainage contaminated the water course in the vicinity of the paddy soils. The proper measures are required to prevent contamination of the soil and water in the vicinity of the Keum-Jung mine.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.383-392
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• 2019

How to safely and economically dispose mining tailings is a challenge to mine operators. This paper presents an alternative upstream method for tailings dam construction, termed as the template construction method (TCM), which has been successfully implemented at Zhelamuqing tailings impoundment since 2004. By the beginning of 2015, the tailings dam wall had reached 95 m in height for the 46 upstream raises, with the total height of the dam including the starter dyke being 128 m. The proposed TCM is relatively simple and cost-effective and provides a good way for constructing rapidly raising tailings dam based on this case.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.39-47
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• 1997

Geochemical study was carried out to find out the distribution of metals and cyanide in soil in the vicinity of the abandoned Daduck mine and the reason for acid mine drainage occurrence in the tailings impoundment. Chemical analysis showed that content of As in soil around tailings exceeded 15mg/kg, Korean standard of soil contamination in the farm land. That means the contamination of soil by As is due to input of tailings. According to total decomposition of tailings, As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and S were highly concentrated in tailings. However the water in tailings impoundment was changed to acidic and contaminated by metals and sulfate because the tailings in the top of the tailings impoundment had been oxidized. Acid mine drainage contaminated the water course in the vicinity of the paddy soils. The proper measures are required to prevent contamination of the soil and water in the vicinity of the Daduck mine.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 1999

This geochemical study was carried out to find out the distribution of metals and cyanide in the soils around the Keum-Jung abandoned mine. Chemical analysis showed that extractable As contents in the soils near the mine exceeded 15mg/kg, Korean standard of soil contamination for farm land. The Results suggests that As contamination is due to input of tailings in the soils. According to total decomposition of tailings, As was highly concentrated in tailings. The water in a tailings impoundment was changed to acidic and contaminated by metals and sulfate which were released through oxidation of impoundment. Acid mine drainage from the tailings impoundment distribution channels directed to the paddy soils. The proper measures are required to prevent contamination of the soil and water in the vicinity of the Keum-Jung mine.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 2020

This study adopted soil test and laboratory physical model experiments to simulate the tailings impoundment accumulation process according to the principle of similarity. Relying on the practical engineering, it analyzed the tailings deposition characteristics on dry beach surface during the damming process, as well as the variation rules of dam saturation line. Results suggested that, the tailings particles gradually became finer along the dry beach surface to inside the impoundment. The particle size suddenly changed at the junction between the deposited beach and the water surface, which displayed an obvious coarsening phenomenon. Besides, the deposited beach exhibited the vertical feature of coarse upward and fine downward on the whole. Additionally, in the physical model, the saturation line elevated with the increase in dam height, and its amplitude was relatively obvious within the range of 1.0-4.5 m away from the initial dam. Under flood condition, the saturation line height was higher than that under normal condition on the whole, with the maximum height difference of 4 cm. This study could provide an important theoretical basis for further studies on dam failure experiments and the evolution rules of leaked tailings flow.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.19-31
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• 2011

This study had been carried out to investigate spatial and temporal variations of the concentrations of trace metals for contaminated surface water in creek affected by leachate from the tailings impoundment of the Yeonhwa II mine for about 2 years. It was also to ascertain the metal removal efficiency for potentially deleterious metals by the artificial and natural attenuation processes such as retention ponds and hydrologic mixing of uncontaminated tributaries. The concentrations of As, Pb, Cd, and Cu for leachate in the rainy season were not detected. On the other hand, the concentrations of Zn, Fe, Mn, Al, and $SO_4^{2-}$ in the rainy season for leachate were 2-66 times higher than those in the dry season, due to the oxidation of the sulfide minerals and the dissolution of the secondary minerals. The concentrations of Zn and Cd for leachate and surface water of the upper creek in the rainy season exceeded the criteria of River Water Quality and Drinking Water Quality but in the dry season, those of analyzed all the metals (As, Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Cd, Fe, Mn, and Al) for surface water sampled at the study area were below the criteria of River Water Quality and Drinking Water Quality. In regard of the attenuation efficiency for the concentrations of metals, Fe, Mn, Al, Zn, Cd, As, and Cu were removed highly at retention ponds, while the removal efficiency for major cations and sulfate ($SO_4^{2-}$) were related to mixing of the uncontaminated tributaries. Therefore, the major attenuation processes of the metal and sulfate contents in creek affected by leachate from a tailing dump were precipitation (accompanied by metal co-precipitation and sorption), water dilution, and neutralization.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.229-240
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• 2009

In Gosung, the symptoms similar to itai-itai disease from neighboring residents of the Samsanjeil mine have been social issues. Therefore, various researches on the behavior of heavy metals of the tailings impoundment of 280,000 ton in the Samsanjeil mine are required. In this paper, mineralogical and geochemical studies on the tailings at different depths in the Samsanjeil mine were investigated and the factors on the behavior of heavy metals were also studied. At two sampling sites (NN and SN), samples were collected at different depths down to 1 m. At NN sites, pH values decreased with depth, while those at SN sites did not show significant changes. XRD analysis showed that the main minerals in the tailings were quartz, microcline, muscovite, and chlorite with minor amount of gypsum. There were no noticeable changes in the mineral composition with depth. At NN sites, the amount of calcite was negligible, and jarosite, which usually occurs at acid soil or acid mine drainage at pH lower than 4, was identified. However, the samples at SN site contained relatively high contents of calcite with pyrite. Therefore, calcite seemed to buffer the acid and control pH at SN site. The contents of heavy metals in tailings were in the order of Cu > As > Zn > Pb > Co > Cr > Ni > Cd. The heavy metal concentrations in the tailings were closely related with pH changes. The concentrations of Cd and Co were much lower at NN site at which pH values are low than those at SN sites. Contrary to that, Cr and As which exist as oxyanions showed higher concentrations at SN sites. This result showed that the behaviors of heavy metals in our study area were controlled by pH which is influenced by the contents of calcite.