• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 2003

Arsenic contamination around Au-Ag mining areas occurs mainly from the oxidation of arsenopyrite which is frequently contained in mine tailings. In weathered tailings, oxidation of sulfide minerals typically results in the formation of abundant ferric (oxy)hydroxides or (oxy)hydroxysulfates near the tailings surface, and arsenic may be associated with these secondary precipitates. In this study, solid phases of arsenic in weathered tailings of some Au-Ag mines were investigated through the SEM/EDS and sequential extraction analyses. The stability of As solid phases and the leaching potential were assessed with the variation of pH and Eh conditions. Oxidation of sulfides in the tailings samples was indicated by depletion of S molar concentrations compared to As and heavy metals. Under XRD examinations, jarosite as an Fe-oxyhydroxysulfate was found in the tailings of Deokeum, Dongil and Dadeok, and scorodite as an As-bearing crystalline mineral was identified from Dadeok which has the highest concentration of As (4.36 wt.%). Beudantite-like phases and some Pb-arsenates were also found under SEM/EDS analysis, and most of As phases were associated with Fe-(oxy)hydroxides and (oxy)hydroxysulfates despite a few arsenopyrite from Samgwang and Gubong. Sequential extraction analysis also showed that As was present predominantly as coprecipitated with Fe hydroxides from Dongil, Dadeok and Myungbong (72∼99%), and as sulfides (58%) and Fe hydroxide-associated forms (40%) from Samgwang and Gubong. In the tailings leaching experiment, As was released with high amounts by the dissolution of As-bearing Fe(oxy)hydroxysulfates in the lowest pH (2.7) conditions of Deokeum, and by desorption under alkaline conditions of Samgwang and Gubong. Higher leaching rates of arsenite(+3) were found under acidic conditions, which pose a higher risk to water quality. Changes in pH and Eh conditions coupled with microbial processes could influence the stabilities of the As solid phases, and thus, time amendments or landfilling of weathered tailings may result in enhanced As mobilization.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.397-416
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• 1992

In the present study, three clay deposits, named the Seongsan, Ogmaesan and Haenam deposits, were investigated. The altered zones are recognized in the hydrothermally altered rocks of the clay deposits from the center of the alteration to the margin: Kaolin, Kaolin-Quartz, Quartz, Sericite and Chlorite zones in the Seongsan deposits; Quartz zone, Alunite zone, Kaolin zone, Sericite zone and Chlorite zone in the Ogmaesan deposits; Quartz zone, Pyrophyllite zone, Sericite zone and Chlorite zone in the Haenam deposits. These zones can be grouped into two types of alteration: Acidic alteration such as Pyrophyllite zone, Alunite zone, Quartz zone, Kaolin zone, Kaolin-Quartz zone and a part of Sericite zone; Propylitic alteration such as Chlorite zone and a part of Sericite zone. All clay deposits belong to high-sulfidation (acid-sulfate) system. The rocks of the acidic alterations are composed of pyrophyllite, alunite, kaolin minerals, sericite, quartz and pyrite. On the basis of bulk chemical compositions, it was found that some components such as $SiO_2$, $TiO_2$, $Fe_2O_3$, FeO, MgO, CaO, $K_2O$ and $Na_2O$ were mobilized considerably from the original rocks. The mobility of these major elements is related to, and controls, mineral assemblages in each altered zone. Polytypes of sericite are determined as $2M_1$ and 1M by X-ray diffraction method. The amount of $2M_1$ is nearly equal to that of 1M in the Seongsan deposits whereas $2M_1$ is less and higher than that of 1M in the Ogmaesan and the Haenam deposits. These facts indicate that formation temperature of sericite is relatively high in the Haenam deposits, moderate in the Seongsan deposits, and low in the Ogmaesan deposits. The ratios of Na/(K+Na) for alunite in the Ogmaesan deposits determined by electron microprobe analyzer (EPMA) are higher than those in the Seongsan deposits. Thus, the alunite of the Ogmaesan deposits must have been formed from the solutions with relatively high aqueous Na/(K+Na) ratios and low pH at a high temperature rather than that of the Seongsan deposits. From all data, it is clarified that alunite is hypogene in origin, and has been formed by oxidation of hydrogen sulfide in the steam-heated environment, and that alunite has been produced by the spectacular solfataric alteration observed at the surface of some present-day hydrothermal systems.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.8665-8672
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• 2015

In this study, to investigate the feasibility of malodorous substance and organic matter removal by digest sludge in sewage treatment plants, ammonia, methyl mercaptan(MMC), and hydrogen sulfide($H_2S$) in a reactor submerged with BIO-CLOD(BIO-CLOD) and a reactor not submerged with BIO-CLOD(Non BIO-CLOD) were measured at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after the submergence of BIO-CLOD. Whereas the reactor in which BIO-CLOD was submerged showed an ammonia removal rate of 48% and high $H_2S$ and MMC removal rates exceeding 98% in 24 hours, the reactor in which BIO-CLOD was not submerged showed an ammonia removal rate of 45%, an $H_2S$ removal rate of 71%, and an MMC removal rate of 84% in 24 hours indicating the possibility of removal of malodor using BIO-CLOD. A nitrification was shown in which ammonia concentrations decreased over time while nitrate nitrogen concentrations increased and sulfur based malodor components were oxidation decomposed indicating that BIO-CLOD had effects to increase sulfate concentrations in the solution and that sulfate concentration increases and atmospheric $H_2S$ removal rates were correlated with each other. With regard to decreases in organic matter in reactor effluents, BIO-CLOD did not affect in a short period of time and when reactors were operated with HRT 12 hours and HRT 24 hours, HRT 12 hours was considered desirable in terms of economy.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2006

Experimental leaching of tailings was performed as a function of times (1, 2, 4, 7, 14, 21 and 30 days) in the laboratory using reaction solutions equilibrated to three different pH set-points (pHs 1,3 and 5). The initial pHs of 5 and 3 stabilized at either 4.6-6.1 or 2.8-3.5 in 2 days and decrease gradually with time afterwards. The results of the leaching tests indicate that the significant increase in the sulfate concentrations and in acidity after 7 days of leaching results from the oxidation of sulfide minerals. There were no significant variations in the extractable Pb found in the leach solutions of pH 5 and 3 within the reaction time (1-30 days), while Zn, Cd and Cu concentrations tend to significantly increase with time. In tailings leaching at an initial pH=1, two trends were observed: i) The 'Zn-type' (Zn, Cd and Cu), with increasing concentrations between days 1 and 30, corresponding to the expected trend when continuous dissolution is the dominant process, ii) the 'Pb-type' (Pb), with decreasing concentrations over time, suggesting rapid dissolution of a Pb source followed by the precipitation of 'anglesite' in relation to the large increase in dissolved sulfates. The high sulfate concentrations were coupled with high concentrations of released Fe, Zn and Cd. Release of Zn and Cd and acidity from these leaching experiments can potentially pose adverse impact to surface and groundwater qualities in the surrounding environment. The kinetic problems could be the important factor which leads to increasing concentrations of trace metals in the runoff water.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.3-15
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• 2008

Different toxic wastes are disposed of in our surroundings and these will ultimately threaten the existence of living organisms. Biohydrometallurgy, which includes the processes of bioleaching and bioremediation through the activities of microorganisms such as bacterial or fungal species, is a technology that has the potential to overcome many environmental problems at a reasonable economic cost. Bioleaching were carried out for dissolution of metals from different materials using most important metal mobilizing bacteria such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans and Laptospirillum ferrooxidans. According to the reaction, bioleaching is parted as direct and indirect mechanism. In direct mechanism the bacteria oxidize the sulphides minerals by accepting electron and producing sulphuric acid in leaching media for their growth and metabolism. In other hand the indirect bioleaching is demonstrated as the oxidation of sulphides mineral by the oxidant like $Fe^{3+}$ produced by the iron oxidizing bacteria. Through this process, substantial amount of metal can be recovered from low-grade ores, concentrates, industrial wastes like sludge, tailings, fly ash, slag, electronic scrap, spent batteries and spent catalysts. This may be alternative technology to solve the high deposition of waste, which moves toward a healthy environment and green world.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 1986

A group of 16 $Zn+Pb{\pm}Ag$ deposits distributed in the Pyeongchang-Jucheon area, Kangwon-do, South Korea, were semi-regionally investigated. These deposits are contact metasomatic and/or hydrothermal replacement types hosted in the carbonate-dominated Cambrian Machari Formation and Ordovician Ibtanri Formation, and also in the carbonate interbeds of the Precambrian argillic metasediments. Comparing some key aspects of the individual deposits, it is found that the ore deposits hosted in the Machari and Ibtanri Formations are mostly of steeply-dipping chimneys with or without skarn minerals and are rich in Ag and Pb>Zn in metal grade whereas those occuring in the carbonate interbeds of the Precambrian argillic metasediments are gently-dipping conformable lenticular orebodies mostly with skarn minerals and are generally poor in Ag and Zn>Pb. The skarn mineralization in the area appears to have occurred during the lower Cretaceous (118.7Ma) to mid-Cretaceous (107.8Ma) time assumed from the K-Ar dates of the Dowon and Pyeongchang granites which are closely associated with the skarn ore deposits. The Rb/Ba/Sr ratios of these granites indicate that they are of strongly differentiated anomalous granites, and the Nb vs. Y and Rb vs. Y+Nb plots fall on the field of volcanic arc setting. The contact aureoles are zoned, giving the sequence in order of increasing distance from igneous contact: garnet-wollastonite, granet-wollastonite-clinopyroxene and garnet-clinopyroxene in such as the Pyeongchang and Yeonwol 114 areas. Electron microprobe analyses reveal that garnets and clinopyroxenes are generally low in Fe and Mn. Garnets are grossular to intermediate grandite except for those from the Ogryong exoskarn which are richer in andradite, pyrope and spessartine fractions. This indicates that the oxidation state of skarn-forming environment at Ogryong was higher than at the other deposits. Clinopyroxenes are mostly salitic except for those from the Ogryong exoskarn which involve considerable amounts of hedenbergite and johansenite fractions. The ${\delta}^{18}O$ value of Jurassic biotite granite at Ogryong is higher (+10.21‰) than that of Cretaceous one at Chodun (+8.41‰). The ${\delta}^{13}C$ values of carbonate rocks range from -0.89‰ to 0.68‰ and the ${\delta}^{18}O$ values range from +11.91‰ to + 19.34‰ indicating that these carbonate rocks are of marine origin. However, the ${\delta}^{13}C$ values of skarn calcite and vein calcite are -4.80‰ and -12.92‰, and the ${\delta}^{18}O$ values are +5.56‰ and +10.32‰, respectively, indicating that these calcites are of hydrothermal origin. The ${\delta}^{34}S$ values of sulfide minerals range from +4.4‰ to +8.7‰ suggesting that the sulfurs are of magmatic origin.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1089-1102
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• 2004

Seasonal variation of biogeochemical characteristics was determined in Lake Shihwa from October 2002 to August 2003. When the lake was artificially constructed for the freshwater reservoir in 1988, the development of the strong haline density stratification resulted in two-layered system in water column and hypoxic/anoxic environment prevailed in the bottom layer due to oxidation of accumulated organic matters in the lake. Recently, seawater flux to the lake through the sluice has been increased to improve water quality in the lake since 2000, but seasonal stratification and hypoxic bottom layer of the lake still developed in the summer due to the nature of artificially enclosed lake system. As the lake is still receiving tremendous amount of organic matters and other pollutants from neighboring streams during the rainy summer season, limited seawater flux sluicing into the lake may not be enough for the physical and biogeochemical mass balance especially in the summer. The excess of accumulated organic matters in the bottom layer apparently exhausted dissolved oxygen and affected biogeochemical distributions and processes of organic and inorganic compounds in the stratified two-layered environment in the summer. During the summer, ammonia and dissolved organic carbon remarkably increased in the bottom layer due to the hypoxic/anoxic condition in the bottom layer. Phosphate also increased as the result of benthic flux from the bottom sediment. Meanwhile, dissolved organic carbon showed the highest value at the upstream area and decreased along the salinity gradient in the lake. In addition to the sources from the upstream, autochthonous origin of particulate organic carbon from algal bloom in the lake might be more important for sustaining aggravated water quality and development of deteriorated bottom environment in the summer. The removal of trace metals could be attributed to scavenging by strong insoluble metal-sulfide compounds in the hypoxic/anoxic bottom layer in the summer.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2005

A one-dimensional numerical model was developed to simulate vertical profiles of electron acceptors and their reduced species in benthic sediments. The model accounted for microbial degradation of organic matter and subsequent chemical reactions of interest using stoichiometric relationships. Depending on the dominant electron acceptors utilized by microorganisms, the benthic sediments were assumed to be vertically subdivided into six zones: (1) aerobic respiration, (2) denitrification, (3) manganese reduction, (4) iron reduction, (5) sulfate reduction, and (6) methanogenesis. The utilizations of electron acceptors in the biologically mediated oxidation of organic matter were represented by Monod-type expression. The mass balance equations formulated for the reactive transport of organic matter, electron acceptors, and their corresponding reduced species in the sediments were solved utilizing an iterative multistep numerical method. The ability of model to simulate a freshwater sediments system was tested by comparing simulation results against published data obtained from lake sediments. The simulation results reasonably agreed with field measurements for most species, except for ammonia. This result showed that the C/N ratio (106/16) in the sediments is lower than what the Redfield formula prescribes. Since accurate estimates of vertical profiles of electron acceptors and their reduced species are important to determine the mobility and bioavailability of trace metals in the sediments, the model has potential application to assess the stability of selected trace metals in the sediments.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.83-92
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to investigate damage conditions of cut slope structures due to acid rock drainage (ARB) and to assess the acid production potential of various rocks. Acid rock drainage is produced by the oxidation of sulfide minerals contained in coal mine zone and mineralization belt of Pyeongan supergroup and Ogcheon group, pyrite-bearing andesite, and Tertiary acid sulfate soils in Korea. Most of cut slopes producing ARB have been treated with shotcrete to reduce ARD. According to the field observations, ARD had an adverse effect on slope structures. The corrosion of shotcrete, anchors and rock bolts and the bad germination and growth diseases of covering plants due to ARD were observed in the field. The concentration of heavy metals and pH of ARD from cut slope exceeded the environmental standard, indicating a high potential of environmental pollution of surrounding soil, surface water and ground water by the ARD. According to acid base accounting (ABA) of the studied samples, hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks, tuffs, coaly shales, tailings of metallic mine had a relatively high potential of acid production but gneiss and granite had no or less acid production potential. It is expected that the number of cut slopes will increase hereafter considering the present construction trend. In order to reduce the adverse effect of ARD in construction sites, we need to secure the data base for potential ARD producing area and to develop the ARD reduction technologies suitable.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 1998

Enoronmental problems caused by certain geologic conditions Include pollution of soil by heavy metal, acidization of souls , acid mine drainage, Pound-water pollution, and natural radioactivity, as well as zoo-logical hazards such as landslide and subsidence. The acrid mine drainage contains large amount of heavy metals nO, therefore. cause serious pollution onto the nearby drainage systems and soils. In spite of this prospective environmental danger, few studies have been done on the acid mine drainage derived from non-metallic ore deposits such as pyrophyllitefNapseok) deposits. The sudo-bearing pyrophyllite ores, alteration zones, and mine talllngs of pyrophylllte deposits produce acrid mine drainage by the okidation of weathering. Compared to the fresh host rocks, the ores and altered rocks of pyrophyllite deposits produce acidic solution which contain higher amount of heavy metals because of OeP lower buffering capacity to acrid solution. The pus of urine water and nearby stream water of pyrophyllite deposits are 2.1~3.7, which are strong- ly acidic and much lower than that (6.2~7.2) of upstream water and than that (6.8~7.6) of the stream water derived from the non-mineralized area. This study reveals that this acrid mine drainage can affect the downstream area which is 8km far from the pyrophyllite deposits, even though the drain Is diluted with abundant non-contaminated river water This suggmists that not only acid mine drainage but also the sulfide-bearing sediments originated from the pyrophyllite deposits move downstream and form acidic water through continuous oxidation reaction. The heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Nl, Mn and Fe are enriched In the mine water of low pH, and their contents decrease as the pH of mine water Increases because of the Influx of fresh stream wainer. SoUs of the Pyrophyulte deposits are characterized by high contents of heavy metals. The stream sediments containing the yellowish brown precipitates formed by neutralization of acid mine drainage occur in all parts of the stream derived from the pyrophyllite deposits, and the sediments also contain high amounts of heavy metals. In summary, the acid mine drainage of the pyrophyllite deposits is located in the upstream part of Hoidong water reservoir in Pusan contains large amounts of heavy metals and flows into the Holdong water reservoir without any purification process. To protect the water of Holdong reservoir, the acid mine drainage should be treated with a proper purification process.