• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.17-25
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• 2018

The Boroo area in Mongolia is known to have been contaminated with heavy metals due to irregular gold mining activities and the release of mercury from gold extraction process. Soil and mine tailings were collected to analyze contamination patterns of heavy metals in the Boroo area. Analyses revealed that mercury, arsenic and cadmium concentrations exceeded the regulatory standard of the nation (Mongolia National Standard). In case of mercury, about 80% of the survey area was over the limit and the concentration distribution heavily influenced by influx of mercury through water transport. Soil contamination by arsenic was most severe that the concentration exceeded the regulatory limit in almost entire survey area, showing peak concentrations at nearby streams and river along with ore processing facilities. For cadmium, about 20% of the survey area was over the limit with the concentration distribution similar to that of arsenic.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.151-156
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• 2011

The domestic mine development community the countermeasure establishment is insufficient about ground sinkage, not only the mine which is a in line is partial from the mine of the most which has become the rest mine and abandoned mine or the index sinkage occurs. The ground sinkage which occurs from the abandoned mine area most after operation is stopped, a long time passes and accurately predicts an occurrence location and a time with the residual sinkage which occurs, is difficult. Underground goaf of the abandoned mine and the closed shaft When considering the potentiality which causes the instability of ground, is a possibility of reaching a damage in the ground infrastructure or life. The underground shaft which is formed specially with mine development and goaf operates with the obstacle factor in the development project of the mine area, the ground sinkage which is caused by with sinkage, operates with the large safety accident occurrence factor where the important infrastructure of the railroad, road, residential area etc. is damaged. Therefore, In this paper, the goaf cave of the abandoned mine area, for the displacement behavior according to the filling factor of the material is to analyze the numerical analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1440-1445
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• 2008

There are 21 abondoned coal mines drained out mine water in gyeong sang do. We monitored the water quality of 31 mine drainage from 1995. The most of mine drainage was neutral as the average pH was 6.22 and Fe, Mn, Al concentration was below 10mg/L. The result showed the tendency of decreasing of flow and metal concentration. The highest Mn concentration was detected in bonghwa area and the hightest Fe concentration was detected in munkyung area. It means that the water quality is closly related to geological features.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.461-470
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• 2001

The Shihung mine was restored in the early 90's after abandonment for 20 yews since 1973. Although disposed mine tailings were removed and the site was replaced by an incineration plant, still some residual mine tailings remain in the places including the old mine tailing ditposal area and the adjacent agricultural area. These residual mine tailings are prone to impose an adverse impact on the soil and groundwater and needs investigation for the potential contamination. Mine tailing samples were collected from the old tailing disposal area and the iii paddy. The porewater from the mine tailing were extracted and analysed to investigate chemical changes along the reaction path. Batch leaching tests were also carried out in the laboratory to find any supporting evidence found in the field analysis. Evidence of elemental leaching was confirmed both by the mine tailing and the porewater chemistry in them. The element concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn in the porewater exceed the standard for drinking water of Korean government and US EPA. Leaching of heavy metals from the mine tailing seem to be responsible for the contamination. In batch leaching test. heavy metals were either continuous1y released or declined rapidly. Combining the information with porewater variation with depths and the geochemical meodeling results, most of elements are controlled by dissolution and/or precipitation processes, with some solubility controlling solid phases (Cu, Pb, Fe and Zn). Batch leaching test conducted at fixed pH 4 showed much higher releases for the heavy metals up to 400 times (Zn) and this area is becoming more vulnerable to soil and groundwater pollution as precipitation pH shifts to acidic condition.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.721-724
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• 2006

Among many sources of soil and water pollution, former mining regions also play an important role in distribution and scope of pollution. In response, KMRC has made an investigation into the status mine hazard at the abandoned metalliferous mine area in Korea. In this study, we analyzed distribution of mine hazards at abandoned metalliferous mines using GIS. We considered the distribution of mine hazards and its magnitude for each abandoned mine and displayed the mine hazard index (MHI) using GIS. We divided the MHI value for each mine into 5 classes, and displayed the first class as smallest point symbol and the last class as biggest point symbol. The biggest symbol shows the most serious status of mine hazards. This GIS function was included in the AMGIS system KMRS are running, and it would be helpful to make decision of reclamation priority at abandoned metalliferous mine area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.19-21
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• 2001

The Shiheung mine was closed in 1972 and has been abandoned since then. Although some restoration work has been done, there still remain mine failings in and around the mine, posing a potential environmental hazard. Mine tailings and the porewater extracted from the tailing were investigated to see any evidence of elemental release and migration to adjacent groundwater and soil in the field. The pHs of the tailing range from 6.24 to 7.23. Calcite in the studied area seems to influence on such neutral pH range. Depth profile of mine tailing demonstrate elements have been leached and removed as a consequence of weathering during disposal. This is also supported by the findings from porewater analysis, corresponding the trends in the mine tailings. The concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn in the tailing porewater exceed the standard value of EPA for drinking water and this implies groundwater can be contaminated through infiltration of the porewaters, which ultimately will be discharged as leachate from the mine tailing. Groundwater samples collected near the mine area do not show high metal concentrations, except for Fe, which were detected over drinking water standard.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.6869-6877
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• 2015

This study was conducted to figure out measures to improve abandoned mine area residents' life satisfaction from the viewpoint of ecosystems. The subjects of this study were 195 residents aged at least 30 years and structured survey were used collected from April, 3, 2014 to 20. The levels of abandoned mine area residents' mental health were measured using the general mental health scale and the residents' life satisfaction was examined using a life satisfaction scale. The abandoned mine area resident's life satisfaction was a little higher than the middle and their future life satisfaction was shown to be the lowest. Out of the microsystemic factors, mental health degree contributing to the quality of life and those with lower depression and anxiety showed higher life satisfaction. None of the mesosysystemic factors, were not found to influencing the quality of life. Out of the macrosystemic factors were found to be mine area special law in influencing the quality of life. In order to improve the life satisfaction of the mine locals seem to need practical strategies related for maintaining a healthy mind and continued implementation of the economic revitalization policy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.409-412
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• 2003

Total extraction of stream sediments in the Kwangyang mine area shows their significant pollution with most trace metals such as Cr, Co, Fe, Pb, Cu, Ni, Zn and Cd, due to sulfide oxidation in waste dumps. Calculations of enrichment factor shows that Chonam-ri creek sediments are more severely contaminated than Sagok-ri sediments. Using the weak acid (0.1N HCl) extraction and sequential extraction techniques, the transport and sediment-water partitioning of heavy metals in mine drainage were examined for contaminated sediments in the Chonam-ri and Sagok-ri creeks of the Kwangyang Au-Ag mine area. Calculated distribution coefficient (Kd) generally decreases in the order of Pb $\geq$Al > Cu > Mn > Zn > Co > Ni $\geq$ Cd. Sequential extraction of Chonam-ri creek sediments shows that among non-residual fractions the Fe-Mn oxide fraction is most abundant for most of the metals. This indicates that precipitation of Fe hydroxides plays an important role in regulating heavy metal concentrations in water, as shown by field observations.

• 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 Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.93-108
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• 2013

This study is aimed to prepare the effective detail survey methods(Phase II) of abandoned metal mines through the contamination assessment for mine types and facilities in the abandoned metal mine areas. The study sites of 12 abandoned mines are located in Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do and those were chosen among 310 sites that the Phase II survey was conducted from 2007 to 2009 after considering the results of Phase I for abandoned mines scattered all over the country. 12 study sites were classified into four types; Type I sites only have pit mouth. Type II sites have pit mouth and mine-waste field. Type III sites have pit mouth and tailing sorting field. Type IV sites have pit mouth, tailing sorting field and concentrator(s). In forest land, paddy soil and farm land of Type I, As and Cd were showed average concentration, and Cu and Pb were high on the pit mouth area in one mines where the pit mouth was developed within 500 m. In the mines of Type II, Cu and Pb were showed average concentration too, but As and Cd were slightly high in pit mouth and mine-waste field. The mines of Type III which had grinding particle process through physical separation milling or hitting showed similar tendency with Type II. However, mines of Type IV pit mouth, mine-waste field and showed various results depending on defining the contamination sources. For example, if contamination source was pit mouth, the mixed results of Type I, II, II were showed. In tailing sorting field which was regarded as the most important source and having high mobility, however, if there were no facilities or it was difficult to access directly, field sampling was missed occasionally during phase I and phase II survey. For that reason, the assessment for tailing sorting field is missed and it leads to completely different results. In the areas of Type I mines, the concentration of heavy metals exceeded precautionary standards of soil contamination or not within 1,000 meters of pit mouth. Nickel(Ni) was the largest factor of the heavy metal contamination in this type. The heavy metals except Arsenic(As) were shown high levels of concentration in Type II areas, where pit mouth and mine-waste field were operated for making powder in upriver region; therefore, to the areas in the vicinity of midstream and downstream, the high content of heavy metals were shown. The tendency of high level of heavy metals and toxic materials contained in flotation agent used during sorting process were found in soil around sorting and tailing field. In the abandoned-pit-mouth area, drygrinding area and tailing sorting field area, the content of Cupper(Cu) and Zinc(Zn) were higher than other areas. Also, the contaminated area were larger than mine reclamation area(2,000 m) and the location of tailing sorting field was one of the important factors to estimate contaminated area.