Geochemistry of arsenic in uranium mine mill tailings, Saskatchewan, Canada

Donahue, Robert; Hendry, M. Jim

doi:10.1016/s0883-2927(03)00106-9

Cited by 89 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, U geochemistry has been studied extensively in Rifle, Colorado and other mill tailing sites. [1,14,38,39] At these sites, U immobilisation can occur with reduction to U IV or when U VI forms stable precipitates with, e.g. dissolved phosphate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of biogeochemical redox processes on the fate and transport of As and U at an abandoned uranium mine site: an X-ray absorption spectroscopy study

Troyer

Stone

2014

Environ. Chem.

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Environmental context. Uranium and arsenic, two elements of human health concern, are commonly found at sites of uranium mining, but little is known about processes influencing their environmental behaviour. Here we focus on understanding the chemical and physical processes controlling uranium and arsenic transport at an abandoned uranium mine. We find that the use of sedimentation ponds limits the mobility of uranium; however, pond conditions at our site resulted in arsenic mobilisation. Our findings will help optimise restoration strategies for mine tailings.Abstract. Although As can occur in U ore at concentrations up to 10 wt-%, the fate and transport of both U and As at U mine tailings have not been previously investigated at a watershed scale. The major objective of this study was to determine primary chemical and physical processes contributing to transport of both U and As to a down gradient watershed at an abandoned U mine site in South Dakota. Uranium is primarily transported by erosion at the site, based on decreasing concentrations in sediment with distance from the tailings. Sequential extractions and U X-ray absorption near-edge fine structure (XANES) fitting indicate that U is immobilised in a near-source sedimentation pond both by prevention of sediment transport and by reduction of U VI to U IV . In contrast to U, subsequent release of As to the watershed takes place from the pond partially due to reductive dissolution of Fe oxy(hydr)oxides. However, As is immobilised by adsorption to clays and Fe oxy(hydr)oxides in oxic zones and by formation of As-sulfide mineral phases in anoxic zones down gradient, indicated by sequential extractions and As XANES fitting. This study indicates that As should be considered during restoration of uranium mine sites in order to prevent transport.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of biogeochemical redox processes on the fate and transport of As and U at an abandoned uranium mine site: an X-ray absorption spectroscopy study

Troyer

Stone

2014

Environ. Chem.

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“…Since As occurs in a variety of natural metalbearing sulfides, long-term mining and smelting of the sulfide ores have resulted in contamination of nearby air, soil, sediment and aquatic systems with As (Bowell et al 1994;Donahue & Hendry 2003). Refinement of Au ore, where arsenopyrite (FeAsS) often coexists, can act as a source of serious As contamination (Bhumbla & Keefer 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of different carbon sources on microbial mediation of arsenic in arsenic-contaminated sediment

Lee

Kim

et al. 2005

Environ Geochem Health

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Changes in speciation and mobility of As by indigenous bacteria in As-contaminated sediments (339 mg/kg) from an abandoned Au-Ag mine area in Korea were investigated after biostimulation with a variety of carbon sources, including acetate, lactate and glucose in batch experiments. Sequential extraction analysis designed to determine the form of As occurrence revealed that 40 and 47% of As were present in the sediment as Fe-associated and residual fractions, respectively. After 22-day incubation with acetate and lactate, the presence of indigenous bacteria increased the amount of total dissolved As from both Fe-associated and residual fractions in the sediment. More than 99% of dissolved As existed as As(V) in biotic slurries in contrast to sterile controls (less than 50% of total dissolved As), which indicated that indigenous bacteria transformed some dissolved As(III) to As(V). In real environments, depending on the pH, microbially-produced aqueous As(V) may be either immobilized through adsorption or reduced to As(III) after migration to the anoxic subsurface.

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“…The literature contains many other arsenic analyses of mine drainage samples from all over the world, including Mexico (Razo et al, 2004;Mendoza et al, 2006), Montana, USA (Nimick et al, 2003), Arizona, USA (Rösner, 1998), New Mexico, USA (Boulet and Larocque, 1996), South Dakota, USA (May et al, 2001), Colorado, USA (Bednar et al, 2005), Utah, USA (Bednar et al, 2005), Idaho, USA (Bednar et al, 2005), Alaska, USA (Gray and Sanzolone, 1996), Northwest Territories, Canada (Bright, Dodd and Reimer, 1996), British Columbia, Canada Crusius et al, 2003), Ontario, Canada (Azcue and Nriagu, 1995;Ross, Bain and Blowes, 1999), Manitoba, Canada (Moncur et al, 2002), Saskatchewan, Canada (Donahue and Hendry, 2003;Moldovan, Hendry and Jiang, 2001), Spain (Loredo et al, 2004;Loredo et al, 1999;Loredo et al, 2003), France (Migon and Mori, 1999;Bodénan et al, 2004), Río Pilcomayo of Bolivia-Paraguay-Argentina (Hudson-Edwards et al, 2001;Archer et al, 2005), Argentina (Williams, 2001), Tunisia (Jdid et al, 1999), Sweden (Sjöblom, Håkansson and Allard, 2004), Ecuador (Williams, 2001;Appleton et al, 2001), Germany (Zänker et al, 2002;Jakubick, Jenk and Kahnt, 2002), Australia (Ashley et al, 2003), Slovak Republic (Klukanová andRapant, 1999), Republic of Korea Woo and Choi, 2001;Jung, Thornton and Chon, 2002), Poland …”

Section: Mine Drainage Properties and Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arsenic in Natural Environments

Henke

2009

Arsenic

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Geochemistry of arsenic in uranium mine mill tailings, Saskatchewan, Canada

Cited by 89 publications

References 24 publications

Effect of biogeochemical redox processes on the fate and transport of As and U at an abandoned uranium mine site: an X-ray absorption spectroscopy study

Effect of biogeochemical redox processes on the fate and transport of As and U at an abandoned uranium mine site: an X-ray absorption spectroscopy study

The effects of different carbon sources on microbial mediation of arsenic in arsenic-contaminated sediment

Arsenic in Natural Environments

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