The MERSADE (European Union) project: Testing procedures and environmental impact for the safe storage of liquid mercury in the Almadén district, Spain

Industrial and natural sources of gaseous elemental mercury in the Almadén district (Spain): An updated report on this issue after the ceasing of mining and metallurgical activities in 2003 and major land reclamation works

“…Mercury concentrations in soils and air (Llanos et al, 2010) are remarkably above baselines from background areas, although the results are well within the ranges for the Almadé n district. As expected the highs of mercury concentration in soils (above 800 mg g À 1 ) and air (above 300 ng m À 3 ) are located inside the Las Cuevas complex perimeter.…”

“…The Las Cuevas mine (Llanos et al, 2010) is located some 9 km to the NE of Almadé n ( Fig. 1A) and was operated during the 1980s and 1990s.…”

“…No emissions of mercury from the tanks were detected. However, the handling of flasks and vessels at the old vehicle maintenance hangar resulted in discrete incidents leading to the accidental loss of liquid mercury (Llanos et al, 2010). Given that liquid mercury is a highly persistent pollutant, difficult to eradicate from contaminated surfaces, this site is a net source of gaseous mercury, which may mask signals from the safe storage.…”

“…On the other hand, contributions of the most important Hg miningmetallurgical sites to this global GEM pool cannot be denied as significant , and deserve attention and efforts to reduce its importance, in particular now that most of them have closed. In this regard, GEM concentrations in Almadén have been locally studied by Ferrara et al (1998), Higueras et al (2006), Llanos et al (2010) and Martínez-Coronado et al (2011). Besides, Llanos et al (2011) described, modeled and quantified emissions from local contaminated sites.…”

A review of international trends in mercury management and available options for permanent or long-term mercury storage

“…Because Hg mining took place in the area, the Hg concentration is higher than that of other areas. However, the area is within the Mediterranean climate zone and experiences hot summers and cold winters, including the potential for natural disasters, such as heavy rain and flooding [78].…”