• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.78-85
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: Recent studies using various industrial wastes for heavy metal stabilization in soil were conducted in order to find out new alternative amendments. The acid mine drainage sludge(AMDS) contains lots of metal oxides(hydroxides) that may be useful for heavy metal stabilization not only waste water treatment but also soil remediation. The aim of this study was to investigate the applicability of acid mine drainage sludge for heavy metals stabilization in soils METHODS AND RESULTS: Alkali soil contaminated with heavy metals was collected from the agricultural soils affected by the abandoned mine sites nearby. Three different amounts(1%, 3%, 5%) of AMDS were applied into control soil and contaminated soil. For determining the changes in the extractable heavy metals, $CaCl_2$ and Mehlich-3 were applied as chemical assessments for metal stabilization. For biological assessments, lettuce(Lactuca sativa L.) and chinese cabbage(Brassica rapa var. glabra) were cultivated and accumulation of heavy metals on each plant were determined. It was revealed that AMDS reduced heavy metal mobility and bioavailability in soil, which resulted in the decreases in the accumulation of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in each plant. CONCLUSION: Though the high level of heavy metal concentrations in AMDS, any considerable increase in the heavy metal availability was not observed with control and contaminated soil. In conclusion, these results indicated that AMDS could be applied to heavy metal contaminated soil as an alternative amendments for reducing heavy metal mobility and bioavailability.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.9-18
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• 2003

Sampling of waters from each stage of treatment system (Successive Alkalinity Producing System; SAPS), tailings seepage, and spring near the Hanchang coal mine of Kangwon Province were carried out seasonally and analyzed to evaluate the source and possible path of groundwater contamination by acid mine drainage (AM). Sulfur isotope compositions were measured to identify the origin of groundwater contaminations and the sulfate reduction processes in the SAPS. Low pH and high metal concentration of spring water indicates possibility of the groundwater contamination by AMD. Removal efficiency of acidity of the SAPS was 18.17 g/$\textrm{m}^2$/day on an average and the metal removal efficiency was almost 100%, which was higher than those of other treatment systems. However, no appreciable decrease of sulfur content and almost similar sulfur isotope compositions of water from each stage of the treatment system may suggest incomplete or very poor sulfate reduction by sulfate reducing bacteria. Chemical and sulfur isotope compositions showed that spring water was contaminated by seepage from mine tailings. And seepage of stonewall, a part of treatment system was affected by both tailings seepage and mine adit drainage. In this study site, the treatment system was constructed for the only AMD from mine adit not for tailings seepages, which resulted in the groundwater contamination from tailing seepages. Similar situation is expected in other abandoned coal mine areas.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.531-540
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• 2022

Various iron minerals that precipitate in acid mine drainage have a great influence on the concentration change and mobility of trace elements in the drainage during phase transition to other minerals as well as the precipitation process. This study investigated the change of mineral properties and the behaviors of trace elements influenced by pH and time for the precipitates collected from the acid mine drainage treatment system of the Dalsung mine, where schwertmannite is mainly precipitated. However, the main mineral precipitated in the drainage was goethite, suggesting schwetmannite has already undergone a phase transition to goethite to some extent, and it was observed that at higher pH, the peak width at half maximum of XRD peak was narrower. This can be interpreted as the transformation of small amount of amorphous schwetmannite to goethite or an increase in the crystallinity of goethite, and it showed that the higher the pH, the greater this change was. The concentration of Fe was also greatly affected by the pH values, and as the pH increased, the concentration of Fe in the drainage decreased. With increasing time, the Fe concentration increased and then decreased, which can be interpreted to indicate the dissolution of schwertmannite and precipitation of goethite. This mineral change probably resulted in the rapid increase of the concentration of S at initial stage, but its concentration was stabilized later. The concentration of S is also related to the stability of schwetmannite, showing a high concentration at a low pH at which schwertmannite is stable and a low concentration at a high pH at which goethite is stable. The trace elements present as cations in the drainage also showed a close relationship with the pH, generally the lower the pH, the higher the concentration, due to the solubility changes by the pH, and the precipitation and the changes in mineral surface charge at high pH. On the other hand, in the case of As, existing as an anion, although it showed a high concentration at low pH, its concentration increased with time at all pH values, which is probably related to the concentration of Fe which can be coprecipitated in the drainage, and the increase of As concentration with time is also considered to be related to the decrease in schwertmannite rather than the mineral surface charge.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.95-97
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• 2007

The mining-related damages due to the mining operations such as ground subsidence, tailing, Acid Mine Drainage, and soil contamination have a significant effect on our social and economical environment. So, for the effective prevention and reclamation works of the hazards in the mining area, the systematic management of mine information and mining-related damages is urgently needed. In this study, we estimated the possibilities of GIS-based system development for the mining area and related database. We classified the steps of building GIS as mine itself, mining-related damages, rehabilitation works and additional functions for estimating damages and analyzed the essential database and functions for each step. GIS will be helpful to estimate the mining-related damages and to carry out the reclamation works effectively.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.209-218
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to accumulation of the heavy metals by riparian vegetation throughout analysis of the heavy metal concentration in riparian vegetation, water, and sediment near mine drainage. According to analyzing concentration of the heavy metals in riparian vegetation, water, and sediment the heavy metal was indicated at the leaf significantly. Compared with the concentration of sediment soil, the maximum concentration of the As, Cd, CN, Pb, Zn was higher 2.6, 2.6, 25, non-detect, and 15 times in leaf. Also those concentration have 9.6, 16.6, 25, 1.6, and 25 times in root. As the results, the author can know the sediment has a very relative to vegetation in mine drainage. because, the increasing of concentration of heavy metal in sediment gives the more accumulative concentration of heavy metal in vegetation. Compared with the concentration of conta minated site and non-contaminated site. As, Cd, CN, Pb, Zn the maximum concentration in sediment soil was higher 5.7, 258.1, 10.9, 370.0, and 298.3 times respectively. In case of vegetation, the maximum concentration of the As, Cd, CN, Pb, Zn was higher 5.6, 62.3, 5.0, non-detect, and 30.6 times in leaf. Also those concentration have 8.5, 63.3, 2.6, 60.7, and 62.1 times in root. In this study, the author can surmise that there indicated a lot of adsorption with the heavy metal concentration in contaminated mine drainage.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.12-22
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• 2020

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is a promising water management strategy for securing stable water resources to overcome water shortage and water quality deterioration caused by global environmental changes. A MAR demonstration site was selected at Imgok-ri, Sangju-si, Korea, based on screening for the frequency of drought events and local water supply situations. The abundant groundwater discharging from a nearby abandoned coal mine is one of the potential recharge water sources for the MAR implementation. However, it has elevated levels of arsenic (~12 ㎍/L). In this study, the potential of the natural attenuation of arsenic by the field geological media was investigated using batch and column experiments. The adsorption and desorption parameters were obtained for two drill core samples (GM1; 21.8~22.8 m and GM2; 26.0~27.8 m depth) recovered from the potentially water-conducting fracture-zones in the injection well. The effluent arsenic concentrations were monitored during the continuous flow of the mine drainage water through the columns packed with the core samples. GM2 removed about 60% of arsenic in the influent (0.1 mg-As/L) while GM1 removed about 20%. The results suggest that natural attenuation is an acitive process occurring during the MAR operation, potentially lowering the arsenic level in the mine drainage water below the regulatory standard for drinking water. This study hence demonstrates that using the mine drainage water as the recharge water source is a viable option at the MAR demonstration site.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.5-11
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• 2012

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one of the most severe environmental problem that results from the oxidation of pyrite $(FeS_2)$ and various other metal sulfides. In this study, the influence of microorganism was tested on the process where AMD was released and the method to inhibit AMD generated by microorganisms at abandoned mine area. The activity and growth rate of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, common microorganisms affecting AMD occurrence, were measured. Chlorine dioxide $(ClO_2)$, NaCl, or surfactant (ASOR-770) was used as an inhibitor for working on activity and growth of microorganism. Among the three inhibitors, 10ppm of chlorine dioxide was the most effective inhibitor for AMD control due to the reduced the activity and growth of microorganisms by 20%.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.18-26
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• 2021

Soil aggregation begins with flocculation of clay particles triggered by interfacial reactions of polyvalent cation such as Ca²⁺ and Fe³⁺, and they are also known as important elements to control the mobility of arsenic in soil environment. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of CMDS (coal mine drainage sludge) for soil loss reduction and stabilization of arsenic-contaminated soil in a 37% sloped farmland under rainfall simulation. The amount of soil loss decreased by 43% when CMDS was applied, and this result was not significantly different from the case of limestone application, which yielded 46% decrease of soil loss. However, the relative amount of dispersed clay particles in the sediment CMDS-applied soil was 10% lower than that of limestone-applied soil, suggesting CMDS is more effective than limestone in inducing soil aggregation. The concentrations of bioavailable arsenic in CMDS amended soil decreased by 46%~78%, which was lower than the amount in limestone amended soil. Therefore, CMDS can be used as an effective amendment material to reduce soil loss and stabilize arsenic in sloped farmland areas.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.299-308
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• 2021

Fe(II) released from mining activities is precipitated as various Fe(III)-oxyhydroxides when exposed to an oxidizing environment including mine drainage. Ferrihydrite, one of the representative precipitated Fe(III) minerals, is easy to adsorb heavy metals and other pollutants due to the large specific surface area caused by very low crystallinity. Ferrihydrite is transformed to thermodynamically more stable goethite in the natural environment. Hence, information on the transformation of ferrihydrite to goethite and the related mobility of heavy metals in the acid mine drainage is important to predict the behaviors of those elements during ferrihydrite to goethite transition. The behaviors of heavy metals during the transformation of ferrihydrite to goethite were investigated for core samples collected from an AMD treatment system in the Heungjin-Taemaek coal mine by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical analysis, and statistical analysis. XRD results showed that ferrihydrite gradually transformed to goethite from the top to the bottom of the core samples. Chemical analysis showed that the relative concentration of As was significantly high in the core samples compared with that in the drainage, indicating that As was likely to be adsorbed strongly on or coprecipitated with iron oxyhydroxide. Correlation analysis also indicated that As can be easily removed from mine drainage during iron mineral precipitation due to its high affinity to Fe. The concentration ratio of As, Cd, Co, Ni, and Zn to Fe generally decreased with depth in the core samples, suggesting that mineral transformation can increase those concentrations in the drainage. In contrast, the concentration ratio of Cr to Fe increased with depth, which can be explained by the chemical bond of iron oxide and chromate, and surface charge of ferrihydrite and goethite.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.3 s.184
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• pp.277-293
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• 2007

Seasonal and spatial variations in the concentrations of trace elements, pH and Eh were found in a creek watershed affected by mine drainage and leachate from several waste rock dumps within the As-Pb-rich Indae mine site. Because of mining activity dating back to about 40 years ago and rupture of the waste rock dumps, this creek was heavily contaminated. Due to the influx of leachate and mine drainage, the water quality of upstream reach in this creek was characterized by largest seasonal and spatial variations in concentrations of Zn(up to $5.830 mg/{\ell}$), Cu(up to $1.333 mg/{\ell}$), Cd(up to $0.031 mg/{\ell}$) and $SO_4^{2-}$(up to $173 mg/{\ell}$), relatively acidic pH values (3.8-5.1) and highly oxidized condition. The most abundant metals in the leachate samples were in order of Zn($0.045-13.909 mg/{\ell}$), Fe($0.017-8.730mg/{\ell}$), Cu($0.010-4.154mg/{\ell}$) and Cd($n.d.-0.077mg/{\ell}$), with low pH(3.1-6.1), and high $SO_4^{2-}$(up to $310 mg/{\ell}$). The mine drainage also contained high concentrations of Zn, Cu, Cd and $SO_4^{2-}$ and remained constantly near-neutral pH values(6.5-7.0) in all the year. While the leachate and mine drainage might not affect short-term fluctuations in flow, it may significantly influence the concentrations of chemicals in the stream. The abundance and chemistry of Fe-(oxy)hydroxide within this creek indicated that the Fe-(oxy)hydroxide formation could be responsible for some removal of trace elements from the creek waters. Spatial and seasonal variations along down-stream reach of this creek were caused largely by the influx of water from uncontaminated tributaries. In addition, the trace metal concentrations in this creek have been decreased nearly down to the background level at a short distance from the discharge points without any artificial treatments after hydrologic mixing in a tributary. The nonconservative(i.e. precipitation, adsorption, oxidation, dissolution etc.) and conservative(hydrologic mixing) reactions constituted an efficient mechanism of natural attenuation which reduces considerably the transference of trace elements to rivers.