A preliminary study of coal mining drainage and environmental health in the Santa Catarina region, Brazil

Abstract

The concentrations and loadings of major and trace elements in coal mine drainage (CMD) from 49 abandoned mines located in the coal fields of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina were determined. The CMD sites typically displayed a wide spatial and temporal variability in physical and geochemical conditions. The results of our CMD analyses in Santa Catarina State were used to illustrate that the geochemical processes in the rock piles can be deduced from multiple data sets. The observed relationship between the pH and constituent concentrations were attributed to (1) dilution of acidic water by near-neutral or alkaline groundwater and (2) solubility control of Al, Fe, Mn, Ba and Sr by hydroxide, sulfate, and/or carbonate minerals. The preliminary results of the CMD analyses and environmental health in the Santa Catarina region, Brazil, are discussed.

Chemical composition and minerals in pyrite ash of an abandoned sulphuric acid production plant

“…Such recovery, if technically and economically feasible, may provide a basis for beneficial use of the phosphogypsum residues at the Santa Catarina site, although further evaluation of the possibilities is beyond the scope of the present paper. (Silva et al, 2010c(Silva et al, , 2011Oliveira et al, 2012). With the exception of the minerals indicated for the respective samples in Table 1 (e.g. pyrite, gypsum, hematite, magnetite, jarosite), most of the phases in Table 4 are at concentrations well below the limit of detection by XRD techniques.…”

Leaching of potential hazardous elements of coal cleaning rejects

“…Spontaneous combustion and subsequent deleterious emissions to the atmosphere Zhao et al 2008; 3. Acid leachate discharges to the environment (Cravotta 2008;Silva and Oliveria 2010) Brazilian coal is characterised by high sulphide contents, pyrite and marcasite (Marcello et al 2008;Lattuada et al 2009;Galatto et al 2009;Silva et al 2009b). CCR contain a broad array of elements including environmentally relevant metals such as As, Cu, Co, Ge, Hg, Mn, Pb and Zn among others (Silva and Oliveria 2010).…”

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“…The great advantages thus obtained are high flocculation efficiency, controlled biodegradation, viscosifying and shear resistance characteristics of the developed graft copolymers [20][21][22]. Graft copolymers based on polysachharide and PAM are more effective flocculants due to the greater approachability of the dangling stretchable PAM chains grafted onto rigid polysaccharide branches towards the contaminant particles [23][24][25][26].…”

“…Coal is a valuable resource being widely used in thermal power plants. Many manufacturing industries use coal as a source of fuel for extraction of metal from their ores [26]. Apart from its advantages, coal mining has disastrous impacts on the environment in which water and air pollutions are of major concern.…”