Potential risk, leaching behavior and mechanism of heavy metals from mine tailings under acid rain

Li, Wei; Deng, Yu; Wang, Hao; Hu, Yuanan; Cheng, Hefa

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140995

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As the main raw material of CTB, cement cannot only play the role of cementation, but it can also effectively solidify/stabilize toxic substances [11,12]. When cement consumption decreases, the strength of the backfilling decreases, and heavy metal pollution raises the danger of environmental safety when the ability of heavy metal ions to solidify declines, causing the surrounding rock to become unstable [13,14]. The primary factor influencing CTB strength and heavy metal ions' solidification is cement usage [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Long-Term Durability and Leaching Characteristics of Low-Consumption Cement Backfill under Different Environmental Conditions

Wang,

Xing,

Yang

et al. 2024

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The high consumption and high cost of cement are the bottleneck problems that limit the development of cemented tailings backfilling technology. The low-consumption cement backfill is immersed in a weak acid/alkaline groundwater environment for a long time. Reducing the consumption of cement can easily lead to problems such as a sudden decrease in strength and the leakage of heavy metals. Through the monolithic leaching test in static and uniaxial compressive tests, the heavy metals’ leaching concentration and the compressive strength of low-consumption cement backfills in different pH soaking solutions were measured at different soaking times. Results show that a lower cement concentration will result in a lower CTB compressive strength and a higher rate of heavy metal leaching. Long-term exposure to an acidic/alkaline environment will lead to the instability and destruction of the CTB structure. A microscopic examination reveals that the creation of hydration products can improve the structure’s compactness while also lowering the internal porosity of CTB but can also solidify heavy metal ions in various ways. A first-order reaction/diffusion model (FRDM) can better evaluate the leaching behavior of CTB. This study helps to improve backfilling technology, thereby contributing to the creation of sustainable mining geotechnologies.

show abstract