Characterization and assessment of potential environmental risk of tailings stored in seven impoundments in the Aries river basin, Western Romania

Abstract

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to examine the potential environmental risk of tailings resulted after precious and base metal ores processing, stored in seven impoundments located in the Aries river basin, Romania. The tailings were characterized by mineralogical and elemental composition, contamination indices, acid rock drainage generation potential and water leachability of hazardous/priority hazardous metals and ions. Multivariate statistical methods were used for data interpretation.ResultsTailings were found to be highly contaminated with several hazardous/priority hazardous metals (As, Cu, Cd, Pb), and pose potential contamination risk for soil, sediments, surface and groundwater. Two out of the seven studied impoundments does not satisfy the criteria required for inert wastes, shows acid rock drainage potential and thus can contaminate the surface and groundwater. Three impoundments were found to be highly contaminated with As, Pb and Cd, two with As and other two with Cu. The tailings impoundments were grouped based on the enrichment factor, geoaccumulation index, contamination factor and contamination degree of 7 hazardous/priority hazardous metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) considered typical for the studied tailings. Principal component analysis showed that 47% of the elemental variability was attributable to alkaline silicate rocks, 31% to acidic S-containing minerals, 12% to carbonate minerals and 5% to biogenic elements. Leachability of metals and ions was ascribed in proportion of 61% to silicates, 11% to acidic minerals and 6% to the organic matter. A variability of 18% was attributed to leachability of biogenic elements (Na, K, Cl-, NO3-) with no potential environmental risk. Pattern recognition by agglomerative hierarchical clustering emphasized the grouping of impoundments in agreement with their contamination degree and acid rock drainage generation potential.ConclusionsTailings stored in the studied impoundments were found to be contaminated with some hazardous/ priority hazardous metals, fluoride and sulphate and thus presents different contamination risk for the environment. A long term monitoring program of these tailings impoundments and the expansion of the ecologization measures in the area is required.

Assessment of contamination and origin of metals in mining affected river sediments: A case study of the Aries catchment, Romania

“…The second PC with 22 % of total variance was correlated with the natural input of Pb (moderate influence), as shown by the positive loadings with alkaline and alkaline earth elements of geogenic origin. 39 This shows the greater influence of the anthropogenic origin of As from the right-bank tributaries compared with the natural source of the left-side tributaries on the sediments in the main stream. The most probable source of Zn was the Abrud River, as shown above.…”

“…[35][36][37] These techniques can be used to obtain relationships between parameters and sampling sites, or to identify the important factors and sources influencing sediment quality. 39 HCA and LDA were used to group the sediments (sites) in relation to their degree of metal contamination. A previous study revealed that tailings deposited in the Aries River Basin pose high contamination risk for the sediments, especially by As, Cd, Cu and Pb.…”

Distribution of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in tailings, soils, and plants around Gol-E-Gohar iron mine, a case study in Iran

“…The I geo , originally defined by Müller (1969), has been used to evaluate the pollution level of PTEs in soils (Loska et al 2004), sediments (Shafie et al 2013), and tailings (Levei et al 2013). It can be calculated using: $$I_{\text{geo}}={\mathrm{italiclog}}_2(C_{\mathrm{normaln}}/1.5B_{\mathrm{normaln}})$$ where C n is the measured concentration of the metal ions in soil, B n is the geochemical background value (local baseline) of the corresponding metal, and the coefficient 1.5 is used to detect very small anthropogenic influences (Müller 1969).…”

Vulnerability assessment methodology: A tool for policy makers in drafting a sustainable development strategy of rural mining settlements in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania

“…However, this inventory of risks only includes the aspects determined or influenced by the mining activities, while a complex analysis of the risks induced to mining settlements should also consider the typology of additional risks. Despite the existence of several other papers where social, economic, and environmental risks as pertaining to the mining areas of the Apuseni Mountains have been previously studied (Surd et al, 2007;Muntean and Constantin, 2009;Ş tefȃ nescu et al, 2011Levei et al, 2011Levei et al, , 2013Moldovan et al, 2013;Ozunu et al, 2009;Forray, 2002;Forray and Hallbauer, 2000;Florea et al, 2005;Bird et al, 2005;Costan et al, 2010), this paper is unique in its approach to addressing such limitation. Thus, the study pursues to achieve a complex image of vulnerability of mining settlements taking into account their dynamics and evolution.…”