Mine Wastes: Characterization, Treatment and Environmental Impacts

407 Pages·2010·9.188 MB·English

by  Bernd Lottermoser (auth.)

Mine Wastes
Third Edition
Bernd G. Lottermoser
Mine Wastes
Characterization, Treatment
and Environmental Impacts
Third Edition
123
Prof.BerndG.Lottermoser,PhD
JamesCookUniversity
SchoolofEarth&EnvironmentalSciences
TownsvilleQueensland4811
Australia
[email protected]
ISBN978-3-642-12418-1 e-ISBN978-3-642-12419-8
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-12419-8
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Preface
This book is not designed to be an exhaustive work on mine wastes. It aims to
serve undergraduate students who wish to gain an overview and an understanding
of wastes produced in the mineral industry. An introductory textbook addressing
thescienceofsuchwastesisnotavailabletostudentsdespitetheimportanceofthe
mineral industry as a resource, wealth and job provider. Also, the growing impor-
tance of the topics mine wastes, mine site pollution and mine site rehabilitation
inuniversities,researchorganizationsandindustryrequiresatextbooksuitablefor
undergraduatestudents.Untilrecently,undergraduateearthsciencecoursestended
to follow rather classical lines, focused on the teaching of palaeontology, crystal-
lography, mineralogy, petrology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, structural geology,
and ore deposit geology. However, today and in the future, earth science teachers
and students also need to be familiar with other subject areas. In particular, earth
sciencecurriculumsneedtoaddresslandandwaterdegradationaswellasrehabilita-
tionissues.Thesetopicsarebecomingmoreimportanttosociety,andanincreasing
numberofearthsciencestudentsarepursuingcareerpathsinthissector.Minesite
rehabilitationandminewastescienceareexamplesofnewlyemergingdisciplines.
This book has arisen out of teaching mine waste science to undergraduate and
graduate science students and the frustration at having no appropriate text which
documentsthescientificfundamentalsofsuchwastes.Therearebookswhichcover
theprinciplesandpracticesofenvironmentalmanagementatminesites(Hutchison
and Ellison1992; Mulligan 1996), theenvironmental impacts of mining (Belland
Donnelly 2006; Ripley et al. 1996), and the wide range of social and environ-
mental issues pertaining to mining (Spitz and Trudinger 2009). There are also a
number of books and reports addressing particular mine waste topics such as tail-
ings (Ritcey 1989), sulfide oxidation (Alpers and Blowes 1994; Evangelou 1995),
mine waters (Morin and Hutt 1997; Younger and Robins 2002; Younger et al.
2002),acidminedrainage(SkousenandZiemkiewicz1996),minewatertreatment
(Brown et al. 2002), and cyanide-bearing wastes (Mudder et al. 2001). Some of
these books and reports, written for researchers or industry practitioners, contain
a lot of useful theoretical or practical information. However, a single introductory
textexplainingthescientificprinciplesofproblematicminewastesisstillmissing.
Thisbookaimstofillthisgapandwilltherebycomplementtheexistingliterature.
v
vi Preface
It has been written with undergraduate science, environmental science and engi-
neeringstudentsinmindwhohavealreadygainedabasicknowledgeinchemistry
andtheearthsciences.Detailsofmineralogicalandgeochemicalaspectshavebeen
deliberatelyomittedfromthisworkasthesearealreadycoveredbytheexistinglit-
erature. This book will be particularly of use to those students with a preliminary
understanding of inorganic chemistry, hydrology, mineralogy, and geochemistry.
Postgraduatestudentsworkingonminewastesareadvisedtoconsultthespecialized
literature.
I would like to express my appreciation to the many colleagues and students
who fuelled my interest in wastes. Of all my colleagues I am most grate-
ful to Associate Professor Paul Ashley (University of New England, Armidale,
Australia) whose cooperation over the years has been so enjoyable and most
stimulating. The funding and technical support for my research programs and
those of my students came over the years from the Australian Research Council,
Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Australian Synchrotron,
AustralasianInstituteofMiningandMetallurgyBicentennialGold’88Endowment
Fund, Environment Australia, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation, University of New England, James Cook University, State
Government agencies of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland, and
various private companies. An Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship made this
book possible. Special thanks to Johanna for her professional editing, encourage-
ment and understanding. To my family, especially my mother, Gisela and Hella –
thank you for being there. To Gisela, thank you for an amazing trip to Greenland
(Case Study 4.2). Finally, this book would not have happened at all without the
initialsuggestionbymyfather–diesesBuchistfürDich.
BerndG.Lottermoser
Contents
1 IntroductiontoMineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 ScopeoftheBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1 MiningActivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.2 Metals,OresandIndustrialMinerals . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.3 MineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 MineWasteProduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 MineWastes:UnwantedBy-ProductsorValuableResources? . . . 12
1.5 MiningandEnvironmentalImpacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5.1 ContaminationandPollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.5.2 HistoricMining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.5.3 Present-DayUnregulatedMining . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.5.4 RegulationofModernMining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1.6 RehabilitationofMineWastesandMineSites . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1.7 SourcesofInformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
1.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2 SulfidicMineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.2 WeatheringofSulfidicMineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.3 AcidProducingReactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.3.1 Pyrite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.3.2 OtherSulfides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.3.3 OtherMinerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.4 AcidBufferingReactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.4.1 Silicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.4.2 Carbonates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.4.3 ExchangeableCations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.4.4 ReactionRates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.5 CoalMineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.5.1 SpontaneousCombustionofPyriticWastes . . . . . . . . 68
vii
viii Contents
2.6 FormationandDissolutionofSecondaryMinerals . . . . . . . . . 70
2.6.1 Pre-miningandPost-miningSecondaryMinerals . . . . . 70
2.6.2 SolubilityofSecondaryMinerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.6.3 AcidConsumptionandProduction . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2.6.4 CoatingsandHardpans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2.7 AcidGenerationPrediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2.7.1 GeologicalModeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2.7.2 Geological, Petrographic, Geochemical
andMineralogicalDescriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2.7.3 Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
2.7.4 GeochemicalTests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
2.7.5 ModelingtheOxidationofSulfidicWasteDumps . . . . 91
2.8 MonitoringSulfidicWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
2.9 EnvironmentalImpacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.9.1 SoilandSedimentContamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
2.9.2 PlantColonization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
2.10 ControlofSulfideOxidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
2.10.1 WetCovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
2.10.2 DryCovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
2.10.3 Encapsulation,In-PitDisposalandMixing . . . . . . . . 111
2.10.4 Co-disposalandBlending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
2.10.5 AdditionofOrganicWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
2.10.6 Bactericides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
2.11 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
3 MineWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
3.2 SourcesofAMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
3.3 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
3.3.1 SamplingandAnalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
3.4 Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
3.4.1 AcidWaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
3.4.2 ExtremelyAcidWaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
3.4.3 NeutraltoAlkalineWaters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
3.4.4 CoalMineWaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.5 Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.5.1 MicrobiologicalActivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
3.5.2 PrecipitationandDissolutionofSecondaryMinerals . . . 136
3.5.3 Coprecipitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
3.5.4 AdsorptionandDesorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
3.5.5 Eh-pHConditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
3.5.6 HeavyMetals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
3.5.7 TheIronSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
3.5.8 TheAluminiumSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
3.5.9 TheArsenicSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Contents ix
3.5.10 TheMercurySystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
3.5.11 TheSulfateSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
3.5.12 TheCarbonateSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
3.5.13 pHBuffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
3.5.14 Turbidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.6 PredictionofMineWaterComposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.6.1 GeologicalModeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.6.2 MathematicalandComputationalModeling . . . . . . . 160
3.7 FieldIndicatorsofAMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
3.8 MonitoringAMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
3.9 AMDfromSulfidicWasteRockDumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
3.9.1 HydrologyofWasteRockDumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
3.9.2 WeatheringofWasteRockDumps . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
3.9.3 TemporalChangestoDumpSeepages . . . . . . . . . . 173
3.10 EnvironmentalImpacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
3.10.1 SurfaceWaterContamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
3.10.2 ImpactonAquaticLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
3.10.3 SedimentContamination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
3.10.4 GroundWaterContamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
3.10.5 ClimateChange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
3.11 AMDManagementStrategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
3.12 TreatmentofAMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
3.12.1 ActiveNeutralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
3.12.2 OtherChemicalTreatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
3.12.3 PassiveNeutralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
3.12.4 Wetlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
3.12.5 Bioreactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
3.12.6 AditPlugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
3.12.7 GroundWaterTreatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
3.13 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
4 Tailings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
4.2 TailingsCharacteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.2.1 ProcessChemicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.2.2 TailingsLiquids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
4.2.3 TailingsSolids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
4.3 TailingsDams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
4.3.1 TailingsHydrogeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
4.3.2 AMDGeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
4.3.3 TailingsDamFailures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
4.3.4 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
4.3.5 WetandDryCovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
4.4 ThickenedDischargeandPasteTechnologies . . . . . . . . . . . 226
4.5 Backfilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
x Contents
4.6 RiverineandLacustrineDisposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
4.7 MarineDisposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
4.8 RecyclingandReuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
4.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
5 CyanidationWastesofGold-SilverOres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
5.2 OccurrencesandUsesofCyanide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
5.3 CyanideChemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
5.3.1 FreeCyanide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
5.3.2 SimpleCyanideCompounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
5.3.3 ComplexedCyanide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
5.4 GoldExtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
5.4.1 HeapLeachProcess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
5.4.2 Vat/TankLeachProcess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
5.5 HydrometallurgicalWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
5.6 CyanideAnalysisandMonitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
5.7 EnvironmentalImpacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
5.8 CyanideDestruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
5.8.1 NaturalAttenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
5.8.2 EnhancedNaturalAttenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
5.8.3 EngineeredAttentuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
5.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
6 RadioactiveWastesofUraniumOres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
6.2 MineralogyandGeochemistryofUranium . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
6.2.1 UraniumOres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
6.2.2 PlacerandBeachSands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
6.3 AqueousChemistryofUranium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
6.3.1 OxidativeDissolutionofUraniumMinerals. . . . . . . . 265
6.3.2 UraniumSolubility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
6.3.3 UraniumPrecipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
6.4 Radioactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
6.4.1 PrinciplesofRadioactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
6.4.2 RadioactiveDecayofUraniumandThorium . . . . . . . 270
6.4.3 Units and Measurements of Radioactivity
andRadiationDose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
6.4.4 RadioactiveEquilibriumandDisequilibrium . . . . . . . 275
6.5 UraniumMiningandExtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
6.5.1 ConventionalMiningandExtraction . . . . . . . . . . . 277
6.5.2 InSituLeach(ISL)Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
6.6 Mining,ProcessingandHydrometallurgicalWastes . . . . . . . . 283
6.7 Tailings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
6.7.1 TailingsRadioactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
6.7.2 TailingsSolids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Contents xi
6.7.3 TailingsLiquids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
6.7.4 TailingsDisposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
6.7.5 Long-TermStabilityofTailingsDams . . . . . . . . . . 290
6.8 MineWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
6.8.1 Constituents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
6.8.2 Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
6.9 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
6.10 RadiationHazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
6.10.1 RadiationDoseandHumanHealth . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
6.10.2 OccupationalRadiationExposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
6.11 EnvironmentalImpacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
6.11.1 ExcessiveRadioactivityLevelsandRadonEmissions . . 305
6.11.2 InappropriateUseofTailingsandWasteRocks . . . . . . 306
6.11.3 FailureofTailingsDams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
6.11.4 SoilandSedimentContamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
6.11.5 GroundandSurfaceWaterContamination . . . . . . . . 308
6.11.6 AcidMineDrainage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
6.12 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
7 WastesofPhosphateandPotashOres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
7.2 PotashMineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
7.2.1 PotashOres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
7.2.2 MiningandProcessingWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
7.3 PhosphateMineWastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
7.3.1 PhosphateRock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
7.3.2 Mining,ProcessingandHydrometallurgicalWastes . . . 317
7.3.3 Phosphogypsum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
7.3.4 DisposalofPhosphogypsum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
7.3.5 PotentialHazardsandEnvironmentalImpacts . . . . . . 329
7.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393