Current State of the Gold Mining Waste from the Ores of the Ursk Deposit (Western Siberia, Russia)

Abstract

The article presents the original results of the investigation of sulfide-bearing mine tailings dumps (Ursk, Western Siberia, Russia), the adjacent territory, and acid mine drainage flows. The novelty of this study is related to integration of geophysical and geochemical data. The geoelectrical structure of the dump and the drainage valley was determined using the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method. Magnetic anomalies above the surface of the site were identified using ground magnetic surveys. The orthophotomap and a digital elevation model were obtained on the basis of aerial photography from an unmanned aircraft. The model of thermal imaging allows us to identify a number of temperature anomalies in the upper part of the dump slope and filtration zone in the drainage valley, caused by exothermic reactions. The digital relief model was constructed comprising three zones: (1) oxidation, (2) leaching, and (3) mixing and dilution. The oxidation zone is marked by low electrical resistivity (1–10 Ω·m), low pH values of the drainage waters (pH 3.61), low values of the modulus of the magnetic induction vector, and heating by +5 °C compared to the solid dump material that is not actively exposed to water. The oxidative conditions and low pH values favor the dilution of the Fe2+ compounds in the drainage solutions, which also contain Cu (3000 μg/L), Pb (1200 μg/L), As (1300 μg/L), and Hg (34 μg/L). The zone of the primary geochemical barrier is formed within the first 400 m, where the major proportion of dissolved elements if deposited. The second iron–aluminum sorption geochemical barrier is formed at a distance of 1000 m at the mixing zone with the Ur River. The stable geochemistry of surface waters, formed due to the inflow of drainage waters into the Ur River and further into the reservoir, persists at a distance of up to 7.7 km from the dump.

Analiza facjalna i interpretacja środowiska depozycyjnego górnego oligocenu, Blok 09-2/10, basen Cuu Long

“…There are only 5 studies with the aim of terrain surveying and 3D modeling, mainly papers used UAV to generate DEM, DSM, 3D models for purposes related to the landscaping, geometry, weeding and afforestation in mine waste dump [49], tailings dam [30], waste material stock-piles [48], mine haul truck dumping process [52]. In addition, publications involved environmental management primarily concentrate on environmental monitoring of the tailings reservoir [33-35, 43, 45], identifying acid mine drainage [36,37], assessing environment of waste dumps [40,42,44]. For safety and risk management in mine waste dumps, UAV application focus mostly on deformation monitoring [54,63], stability analysis [17], determination of particle size distribution [55][56][57], detection of spontaneous combustion [26,58,61], investigation of soil erosion [59,60,62].…”

“…The images were then classified using support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and U-Net methods, and the distribution of five different types of land cover, including AMD, vegetation, water, roof, and bare land, was identified. Similarly, [37] described the initial findings of an examination into acid mine drainage flows, nearby land, and sulfide-bearing mine tailings dumps in Russia using the integration of geophysical, geochemical data and UAV images. A photogrammetric method of aerial photography was used to record the morphology of the ter-rain and generate a digital elevation model at the study area.…”