RT Journal Article
T1 Potential release and bioaccessibility of metal/loids from mine wastes deposited in historical abandoned sulfide mines
A1 Ruiz Cánovas, Carlos
A1 Quispe Guzmán, Dino Lucio
A1 Macías Suárez, Francisco
A1 Callejón Leblic, María Belén
A1 Arias Borrego, Ana
A1 García Barrera, Tamara
A1 Nieto Liñán, José Miguel
AB This study deals with the potential release of metal/loids from sulfide mine wastes upon weathering and thehealth risks associated with their accidental ingestion. To address this, a complete chemical and mineralogicalcharacterization of a variety of sulfide mine wastes was performed alongside a determination of metal/loidbioaccessibility through leaching tests simulating human digestive and lung fluids. The mine wastes consistedpredominantly of Fe (35–55% of Fe2O3) and exhibited high concentrations of trace metalloids such as As(382–4310 mg/kg), Pb (205–15,974 mg/kg), Cu (78–1083 mg/kg), Zn (274–1863 mg/kg), or Sb (520–1816 mg/kg). Most wastes with high concentrations of soluble compounds are considered hazardous according to theEuropean regulations due to the exceedance of threshold values for As, Pb, Cr, Cu, Sb, sulfates, and Zn determinedby standardized tests. In general terms, the absorption of waste-hosted metals through both digestive andrespiratory routes was low compared to the total metal contents of the wastes, with values below 8% of the totalconcentration in wastes for most metal/loids including Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Tl, or U. However, some metals exhibiteda significantly higher absorption potential, especially through the respiratory route, reaching values of up to 17%for Cr and 75% for Pb, highlighting the strong bioaccessibility of Pb in certain sulfide wastes. Despite the highmetal/loid concentrations observed in the studied wastes, a health risk assessment indicated that some noncarcinogeniceffects could be observed in children only following the accidental digestion of Pb.
PB Elsevier
SN 0269-7491
SN 1873-6424 (Elerctrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21315
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21315
LA eng
NO Cánovas, C. R., Quispe, D., Macías, F., Callejón-Leblic, B., Arias-Borrego, A., García-Barrera, T., & Nieto, J. M. (2023). Potential release and bioaccessibility of metal/loids from mine wastes deposited in historical abandoned sulfide mines. In Environmental Pollution (Vol. 316, p. 120629). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120629
NO This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy andCompetitiveness under the research project TRAMPA (MINECO;PID2020-119196RB-C21). C.R C´anovas thanks the Spanish Ministry ofScience and Innovation for the Postdoctoral Fellowship granted underapplication reference RYC2019-027949-I. BCL, AAB and TGB weresupported by projects PG2018-096608-B-C21 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and innovation (MINECO) and P20-00366 (Ministry ofEconomy, Knowledge, Business and Universities, Regional Governmentof Andalusia, Spain). We would also like to thank to the Editor Dr. HefaCheng and five anonymous reviewers for the support and comments thatnotably improved the quality of the original paper. Funding for openaccess charge: Universidad de Huelva / CBUA.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 15 jun 2026