RT Journal Article
T1 Metal mobility and bioaccessibility from cyanide leaching heaps in a historical mine site
A1 Ruiz Cánovas, Carlos
A1 Moreno González, Raúl
A1 Vieira, Bruno J. C.
A1 Waerenborgh, João Carlos
A1 Marques, Rosa
A1 Macías Suárez, Francisco
A1 Basallote Sánchez, María Dolores
A1 Olías Álvarez, Manuel
A1 Prudencio, María Isabel
AB Unlike acidic sulfide mine wastes, where metal/loid mobility and bioaccessibility has been widely studied, less attention has been paid to alkaline cyanide heap leaching wastes. Thus, the main goal of this study is to evaluate the mobility and bioaccessibility of metal/loids in Fe-rich (up to 55%) mine wastes resulting from historical cyanide leaching activities. Wastes are mainly composed of oxides/oxyhydroxides (i.e. goethite and hematite), oxyhydroxisulfates (i.e. jarosite), sulfates (i.e., gypsum, evaporitic sulfate salts), carbonates (i.e., calcite, siderite) and quartz, with noticeable concentrations of metal/loids (e.g., 1453–6943 mg/kg of As, 5216–15,672 mg/kg; of Pb, 308–1094 mg/kg of Sb, 181–1174 mg/kg of Cu, or 97–1517 mg/kg of Zn). The wastes displayed a high reactivity upon rainfall contact associated to the dissolution of secondary minerals such as carbonates, gypsum, and other sulfates, exceeding the threshold values for hazardous wastes in some heap levels for Se, Cu, Zn, As, and sulfate leading to potential significant risks for aquatic life. High concentrations of Fe, Pb, and Al were released during the simulation of digestive ingestion of waste particles, with average values of 4825 mg/kg of Fe, 1672 mg/kg of Pb, and 807 mg/kg of Al. Mineralogy may control the mobility and bioaccessibility of metal/loids under rainfall events. However, in the case of the bioaccessible fractions different associations may be observed: i) the dissolution of gypsum, jarosite and hematite would mainly release Fe, As, Pb, Cu, Se, Sb and Tl; ii) the dissolution of an un-identified mineral (e.g., aluminosilicate or Mn oxide) would lead to the release of Ni, Co, Al and Mn and iii) the acid attack of silicate materials and goethite would enhance the bioaccessibility of V and Cr. This study highlights the hazardousness of wastes from cyanide heap leaching, and the need to adopt restoration measures in historical mine sites.
PB Elsevier
SN 0304-3894
SN 1873-3336 (electrónico)
YR 2023
FD 2023-02
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22221
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22221
LA eng
NO Cánovas, C. R., González, R. M., Vieira, B. J. C., Waerenborgh, J. C., Marques, R., Macías, F., Basallote, M. D., Olias, M., & Prudencio, M. I. (2023). Metal mobility and bioaccessibility from cyanide leaching heaps in a historical mine site. In Journal of Hazardous Materials (Vol. 448, p. 130948). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.130948
NO This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economic andCompetitiveness through the projects TRAMPA (PID2020–119196RBC21)and by H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology(EIT RawMaterials) through the project Modular recovery process servicesfor hydrometallurgy and water treatment (MORECOVERY). Thiswork was partially supported by FCT (Portugal) through contract UID/Multi/04349/2019. C.R C´anovas thanks the Spanish Ministry of Scienceand Innovation for the Postdoctoral Fellowship granted under applicationreference RYC2019–027949-I. M.D. Basallote thanks the SpanishMinistry of Science and Innovation for the Postdoctoral Fellowshipgranted under application reference IJC 2018–035056-I. The authorswould also like to thank to Prof. Edward D. Burton, Ph.D (Editor) andthree anonymous reviewers for the support and comments that notablyimproved the quality of the original paper.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 13 jul 2026