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Weathering of unsaturated waste rocks from Kevitsa and Hitura mines: Pilot-scale lysimeter experiments and reactive transport modeling
Water Management Solutions, Geological Survey of Finland, Vuorimiehentie 5, 02151, Espoo, Finland; Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Miljøvej, Building 115, 2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Geosciences and Environmental Engineering. Circular Economy Solutions, Geological Survey of Finland, Neulaniementie 5, 70211, Kuopio, Finland.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9034-3880
Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Miljøvej, Building 115, 2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Circular Economy Solutions, Geological Survey of Finland, Neulaniementie 5, 70211, Kuopio, Finland.
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2021 (English)In: Applied Geochemistry, ISSN 0883-2927, E-ISSN 1872-9134, Vol. 130, article id 104984Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The fundamental understanding of hydrogeochemical processes leading to toxic drainage in mining environments is of utmost importance to predict the impact of mining activities in waste facilities and to design effective measures for the mitigation of environmental risk. This study investigates the weathering behavior of different types of mine waste rocks, with considerably different mineralogical and textural properties, by performing long-term (> 3 years) pilot-scale lysimeter experiments combined with multiphase and multicomponent reactive transport modeling. The experiments were carried out in a series of five lysimeter setups, packed with unsaturated waste rocks collected from the Kevitsa and Hitura mine sites in Finland, under the influence of outdoor atmospheric conditions. We focus on the temporal dynamics of the waste rock effluents’ chemistry showing remarkably different compositions in different experiments. The low-sulfide containing Kevitsa pyroxene and Hitura serpentinite waste rocks lead to alkaline drainage, characterized by higher pH (up to 9.5) and lower dissolved constituents (e.g., up to 420 mg/L SO4, 89 μg/L Ni). In contrast, the effluents from the Hitura mica schist waste rocks, which have relatively higher sulfide abundance, show characteristics of acidic drainage with lower pH (∼4.3) and orders of magnitude higher aqueous concentrations (e.g., up to 3100 mg/L SO4, 130 mg/L Ni). The results also show that the presence of a higher fraction of finer particles leads to a faster dissolution rate and thus relatively higher drainage concentrations. The experimental results were quantitatively interpreted with multiphase and multicomponent reactive transport modeling, which allowed capturing the complex dynamic trends and the concentration levels observed in the effluents of the different pilot-scale lysimeters.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2021. Vol. 130, article id 104984
Keywords [en]
Acid mine drainage, alkaline mine drainage, Lysimeter experiments, Reactive transport modeling, Waste rocks
National Category
Geochemistry
Research subject
Applied Geochemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-84309DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2021.104984ISI: 000662868300004Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85106902136OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-84309DiVA, id: diva2:1554822
Funder
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), A70565; A75259
Note

Validerad;2021;Nivå 2;2021-06-16 (beamah);

Forskningsfinansiärer: Geological Survey of Finland (TUMMELI project); Independent Research Fund Denmark (GIGA project, DFF 7017-00130B)

Available from: 2021-05-17 Created: 2021-05-17 Last updated: 2021-12-13Bibliographically approved

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Karlsson, Teemu

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