• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.6-12
• /
• 2007

Feasibility of laboratory-synthesized zerovalent iron was investigated to remove arsenic from leachates of tailings taken from an Au-Ag abandoned mine. The tailings were seriously contaminated with arsenic, and its potential adverse effect on the ecosystems around the mine seems to be significantly high. Long-term column experiments were conducted for about 3.5 months to evaluate the effectiveness of the synthesized zerovalent iron for removal of arsenic. Over than 95% removal efficiency of As was observed in the zerovalent iron mediated tests. In addition, the XRD data suggest that the corrosion products of ZVI were identified magnetite, maghemite, goethite, and lepidocrocite, all of which support Fe(II) oxidation as an intermediate step in the zerovalent iron corrosion process. The results indicate that arsenic can be removed from the tailing-leachate by the mechanism of coprecipitation and/or adsorption onto those iron oxides formed from ZVI corrosion.

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

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.63-79
• /
• 2008

Physicochemical characteristics of stream water, leachate, mine water and groundwater were investigated to estimate the influences of the tailing and waste rock from the abandoned Uljin mine area. Total extraction analysis and mineralogical studies were carried out to understand sulfide weathering and to determine the distributions of trace elements in the soil affected by mine waste (tailing, waste rock and leachate). The pH and EC value of the leachate from the tailing disposal ranged 2.9-6.0, $99{\sim}3,990{\mu}S/cm$, respectively, and the concentrations of dissolved major (up to 492 mg/l Ca; 83.8 mg/l Mg; 45.2 mg/l Na; 44.7 mg/l K, 50.8 mg/l Si) and trace elements (up to $826,060{\mu}g/l$ Fe; $131,230{\mu}g/l$ Mn; $333,600{\mu}g/l$ Al; $61,340{\mu}g/l$ Zn; $2,530{\mu}g/l$ Cu; $573{\mu}g/l$ Cd; $476{\mu}g/l$ Pb) were relatively high. The stream water showed the variation of dissolved metal concentrations in seasonally and spatially. The dissolved metal contents of the stream water increased by influx the leachate from the tailing disposal, but these of the down stream have been considerably decreased by mixing of dilute tributaries. The dissolved metal concentrations of the stream water at dry season (as February) were lower than these at rainy season (as May and July). These represent that the amounts of the leachate varied with season. However, stream water could not be effectively diluted by confluence with uncontaminated tributaries, because the flux of tributaries and streams reduced at dry season. Thus attenuations by dilution had been dominantly happened in rainy seasons. The order of accumulations of trace element in soils compared with background values revealed Mn>Fe>Pb>Cu>Zn. Sulfide minerals were mainly pyrrhotite, sphalerite and galena and chalcopyrite. Pyrrhotite was rapidly weathered along the edge and fractures, and results in the formation of Fe-(oxy)hydroxides, which absorbed a little amount of Zn.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
• /
• 2007.04a
• /
• pp.382-384
• /
• 2007

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.19-31
• /
• 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 Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.291-300
• /
• 1999

Surfactant flushing for enhancing the removal of BTEX from contaminated sand/clay mixtures was investigated. Eight soil columns packed with relatively undisturbed BTEX contaminated soils, were leached with water, methyl alcohol and then flushed with surfactant with or without several additives. Initial concentrations of BTEX mixture range from 278mg/kg to 1975mg/kg. Initial BTEX removal efficiency was 98% when the contaminated soil was flushed with water of 850 pore volumes. Because of tailing effect, water flushing could not remove below 8mg/kg concentrations during the experimental period. Eventually, the most effective surfactant for flushing was turned out to be 4% SOFTANOL(equation omitted)-90 with 3% ethyl alcohol and 3% SXS. In interrupted flow conditions, the removal efficiency was 99.5% with the flushed water of 95 pore volumes. The BTEX mixture removed from the soil columns during the surfactant flushing ranges from 84.5% to 99.5% of the initial amount for both water leaching(850 pore volumes) and surfactant flushing(95-165 pore volumes), respectively. Test results indicated that surfactant flushing could enhance the removal of BTEX mixture from contaminated soils and could reduce the aqueous phase BTEX mixture concentration in leachate.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.21-31
• /
• 1998

A study on the acid leaching and precipitation has been conducted to remove arsenic from the closed-mine tailings. HCI and H$_2$SO$_4$were used as the leach liquor of arsenic and the tailing obtained from the Da-Duck Mine, which was already closed several decades ago, was also used as the source of arsenic. The effect of the concentration of acid, leaching time and the slurry density on the leaching efficiency of arsenic has been examined. In addition, pH controls and the addition of sodium sulfide were also attempted to remove the arsenic compound as the precipitation from the leachate. After 1 hr leaching by HCI, 40 to 86% of arsenic was leached out depending on the concentration of acid or the slurry density while 47 to 77% of it was leached out by $H_2$$SO_4$. The leaching of arsenic by both acids was almost accomplished within 10 min. and after that only a slight increase in leaching efficiency was observed with leaching time. When the leach liquor was used repeatedly for the leaching of arsenic, the concentration of arsenic in the leach liquor was found to increase continuously although the leaching efficiency was diminished. As far as the precipitation of arsenic in the leachate was concerned, more than 99% of arsenic could be precipitated through the addition of sodium sulfide as the precipitator while the pH controls resulted in the precipitation of up to 84%.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.125-134
• /
• 2014

The Janggun mine (Longitude $E129^{\circ}$ 03' 40", Latitude $N36^{\circ}$ 51' 19") was once operated as an underground mine and recently significant amount of mine and leachate water has been discharged from the mine adits and tailing dumps. Mine and leachate waters are characterized by neutral to weakly basic pH values (6.81-9.59). Major cations and anions have concentrations between 6.70-129.80 mg/L of Mg, 289.29-661.02 mg/L of Ca, 4.74-14.38 mg/L of Mn and 1205.00-2448.69 mg/L of $SO{_4}^{2-}$. Brownish yellow precipitates that found in the stream bottom consist of poorly crystallized 2-line ferrihydrite ($Fe_2O_3{\cdot}0.5H_2O$. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs show that brownish yellow precipitates consisted of micro-sized granular particles of about $0.1{\mu}m$ in diameter. Semi-quantitative energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) analyses show that these samples contained mainly Fe with minor Mn, Ca, Si and As.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1998.04a
• /
• pp.83-86
• /
• 1998

1. Introduction : Low molecular harmful organics such as 1-naphthol and phenol are widely used in industries, and pose serious environmental problems. Wastewater containing low molecular harmful organics may be ejected from various sources including metal-plating industries, circuit-board manufacturing process, photographic and photo-processing industries, refineries and metal-tailing leachate. The pollution of nation harbors, waterways and ground water resources with these organics has reached critical portions, and might also give hazardous influence on human health. Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration(MEUF) is a recently developed process to remove dissolved organics and/or heavy metals present in small or trace quantities from aqueous solution. In this system, the fatal defect is leakage of surfactants especially at low concentration below CMC(critical micelle concentration), which becomes a secondary pollution. Our group proposed to use biosurfactant and polymeric micelle to solve problems mentioned above. In this study we investigated a modified MEUF using PEO-PPO-PEO (polyethyleneoxide-polypropyleneoxide-polyethyleneoxide) block copolymers for the removal of organic solutes such as 1-naphthol and phenol from aqueous wastewater. We proposed PEO-PPO-PEO block copolymers as new surfactants for forming micelles in MEUF, and investigated the solubilization characteristics and efficiency for the removal of 1-naphthol and phenol. PEO-PPO-PEO block copolymers are, environmentally mild and safe as biosurfactants.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.231-237
• /
• 2011

An active apatite drainage system has been developed at the Goro abandoned mine, comprising a grit cell, a reaction cell, and a precipitation pond. Leachate from an abandoned adit and tailing ponds is collected in a pipeline and is transported to the apatite drainage system under the influence of the hydraulic gradient. The results of a laboratory experiment performed in 2004 indicate that the reaction cell requires 38.8 ton/year of apatite and that precipitate will have to be removed from the precipitation pond every 3 months. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a laboratory test on the efficiency of limestone and apatite in removing arsenic from ARD (acid rock drainage), and to evaluate the suitability of materials for use as a precipitant for the leachate treatment disposal system. The laboratory tests show that the arsenic removal ratios of limestone and apatite are 67.4%-98.3%, and the arsenic removal ratio of apatite is inversely proportional to its grain size. The arsenic compounds are assumed to be Johnbaumnite and Ca-arsenic hydrate. Therefore, apatite and phosphorous limestone can be used as a precipitant for the removal of arsenic, although it is difficult to remove arsenic from ARD when it occurs in low concentrations.