• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.291-307
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• 2018

Australia is the world's top gold, nickel, iron ore, lead, zinc and uranium, and is ranked in the top five in many other important minerals. Extension to existing resources will continue to support well-established local production. There are perceptions by some that Australia is a mature exploration destination where the easily won near-surface deposits were largely discovered many decades ago. In recent years, Australia faces increasing global competition for investment spending in all jurisdictions in which mineral exploration is encouraged. Many regional communities face the threat of losing their main economic driver as a number of long-term mines are reaching the end of their economic life. However, given the trend of increasing mineral demand due to the 4th industrial revolution, it is considered that Korea is also an opportunity to acquire global competitiveness of geoscience and mining technology by smart and digital mining, and by ICT-convergence technology R&D.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.9-18
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• 2017

Recently, the amount of electronic scrap is rapidly increasing due to the rapid growth of the electronics industry. Among the components of electronic scrap, the printed circuit board(PCB) is an important recycling target which includes common metals, precious metals, and rare metals such as gold, silver, copper, tin, nickel and so on. In Korea, however, PCB recycling technologies are mainly commercialized by some major companies, and other process quantities are not accurately counted. According to present situation, several urban mining companies, research institutes, and universities are conducting research on recovery of valuable metals from PCBs and/or reusing them as raw materials that is different from existing commercialization process developed by major companies. In this study, we analyzed not only current status of collection/disposal process and recycling of waste PCBs in Korea but also the trend of recycling technologies in order to help resource circulation from waste PCBs become more active.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.47-62
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• 2024

Abu Gurdi area is located in the South-eastern Desert of Egypt which considered as volcanic massive sulfide deposits (VMS). The present work aims at investigating the ore mineralogy of Abu Gurdi region in addition to the effectiveness of the hydrometallurgical route for processing these ores using alkaline leaching for the extraction of Zn, Cu, and Pb in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, has been investigated. The factors affecting the efficiency of the alkaline leaching of the used ore including the reagent composition, reagent concentration, leaching temperature, leaching time, and Solid /Liquid ratio, have been investigated. It was noted that the sulfide mineralization consists mainly of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, galena and bornite. Gold is detected as rare, disseminated crystals within the gangue minerals. Under supergene conditions, secondary copper minerals (covellite, malachite, chrysocolla and atacamite) were formed. The maximum dissolution efficiencies of Cu, Zn, and Pb at the optimum leaching conditions i.e., 250 g/L NaCO₃ - NaHCO₃ alkali concentration, for 3 hr., at 250 ℃, and 1/5 Solid/liquid (S/L) ratio, were 99.48 %, 96.70 % and 99.11 %, respectively. An apparent activation energy for Zn, Cu and Pb dissolution were 21.599, 21.779 and 23.761 kJ.mol^-1, respectively, which were between those of a typical diffusion-controlled process and a chemical reaction-controlled process. Hence, the diffusion of the solid product layer contributed more than the chemical reaction to control the rate of the leaching process. High pure Cu(OH)₂, Pb(OH)₂, and ZnCl₂ were obtained from the finally obtained leach liquor at the optimum leaching conditions by precipitation at different pH. Finally, highly pure Au metal was separated from the mineralized massive sulfide via using adsorption method.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.54-70
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• 2024

Utilization of completed open-pit for mining waste disposal is an alternative method of tailing storage facility (TSF), which can minimize the area and cost required for the installation of TSF. However, long-term tailing disposal into open-pit has a potential risk of reducing mechanical stability of surrounding rock mass by acting as an additional load. In this research, a realistic open-pit tailing disposal scenario of 60,400 hours was established based on the case of Marymia gold mine, Australia. Mechanical stability of surface pillar between open-pit and underground stope was analyzed numerically by using Sigma/W, under different stope geometry and rock mass conditions. Simulation results showed that long-term tailing disposal into open-pit can significantly increase the failure probability of surface piller. This result suggests that mechanical stability of mine geometry should be conducted beforehand of open-pit tailing disposal.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.149-164
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• 1988

Electrum-sulfide mineralization of the Samgwang and Sobo mines of the Cheongyang Au-Ag area was deposited in two stages of quartz and calcite veins that fill fault zones in granite gneiss. Radiometric dating indicates that mineralization is Early Cretaceous age (127 Ma). Fluid inclusion and sulfur isotope data show that ore mineralization was deposited at temperatures between $340^{\circ}$ and $180^{\circ}C$ from fluids with salinities of 1 to 8 wt. % equiv. NaCl and a ${\delta}^{34}S_{{\sum}S}$ value of 2 to 5 per mil. Evidence of fluid boiling (and $CO_2$ effervescence) indicates a range of pressures from < 200 to $\approx$ 700 bars, corresponding to depths of ${\approx}1.5{\pm}0.3\;km$ in a hydrothermal system which alternated from lithostatic toward hydrostatic conditions. Au-Ag deposition was likely a result of boiling coupled with cooling. Meaured and calculated hydrogen and oxygen isotope values of ore-forming fluids indicate a significant meteoric water component, approaching unexchanged paleometeoric water values. Comparison of these values with those of other Korean Au-Ag deposits reveals a relationship among depth, Au/Ag ratio and degree of water-rock interaction. All investigated Korean Jurassic and Cretaceous gold-silver-bearing deposits have fluids which are dominantly evolved meteoric waters, but only deeper systems (${\geq}1.5\;km$) are exclusively gold-rich.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2008

Organic forms of arsenic (As) were determined through fractionation procedure of soil organic matter (SOM) in soil, sediments and mine tailing samples from the Myungbong, Dongil, and Okdong mining areas of southern Korea. An alkaline extraction method was applied to soil samples followed by the fractionation procedures of SOM by the DAX-8 and XAD-4 resin adsorption method. Major fraction of organic As species (42% to 98%) was found in acid-soluble fraction, whereas minor fraction (0.1 % to 67.8%) was present in the humic-associated As. In acid-soluble fractions, the transphillic- and hydrophilic-associated As were dominant in addition to As binding with humic and fulvic SOM. Arsenic binding was the strongest between pH 6 to 8 and reduced to about 70% at both low and high pH regions. The amount of both transphillic and hydrophillic associated As was less changed than humic and fulvic-associated As, in both low and high pH regions. This apparently indicates that As has stronger affinity towards hydrophillic rather than hydrophobic organics. From the experimental observation of As-binding SOM in natural soil, the ligand exchange model may be a feasible explanation of transphillic and hydrophillic affinity of As.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.261-271
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• 1999

Mining activity in the Gubong gold mine started in 1908 and lasted up to recent days. Heavy metals derived from the activity may be porentially toxic to human life and envirinment of this area. Because metal toxicity depends on chemical associations into five operationally defined groups: exchangeable, carbonate, reducible, oxidizable, and residual fractions, and the Most of heavy metals have significant little significance (alomost<1%). And Cu is mainly associated with the oxidizable from. Total concentration of heavy metals, pH, and mineralogy affect the chemical forms of the metals. Heavy metal concentrations. Significant amounts of metal elements (5∼65.1% in Pb, 6.2∼39.7% in Zn, 8.7∼54.7% in Cd, and 3.6∼24.7% in Cu) were present in carbonate form from mine wastes, contaminated soils and sediments. High pH value and cerussite (Pb bearing carbonate mineral) in mine wastes, contaminated soils and sediments. High pH value and cerussite (Pb beraring varbonate mineral) in mine waste support this result. Areas with high corbonate bound from would have higher potentoal conamination, however, because elements of carbonate bound forms are easily mobilized under lower pH conditions in the surface envionments due to acid to rain soil acidification.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.407-416
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• 1997

Soil, tailings, stream sediment and surface water samples collected in the vicinity of the Geumwang Au-Ag mine were analyzed in order to investigate the pollution level of heavy metals and to determine the dispersion patterns. Although the maximum concentrations of soils collected at the flotation plant and tailings dam were 9,270 ppm As, 17 ppm Cd, 1,480 ppm Cu, 10,080 ppm Pb and 18,400 ppm Zn, dispersion of heavy metals were limited in the vicinity of the flotation plant and tailings dam. This may be due to high pH values (> 8.0) of the soils by flotation solution for mineral processing. The pH values of water samples near the flotation plant and tailings dam were over 8.0 and Cd, Cu and Zn concentrations were not detected. The waters in the vicinity of Geumwang mine generally belong to a $Ca^{2+}-SO_{4}{^{2-}}$ $(HCO_3{^-})$ type.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 1996

Electrum-sulfide minerals of the Namsan Au-Ag mine were deposited in two stages of quartz and calcite veins that fill fault planes in Mesozoic granitic rocks (230~155 Ma). The K/Ar radiometric dating of hydrothermal sericite indicates that mineralization is early Cretaceous age ($127{\pm}3.0Ma$). Mineralogic, fluid inclusion and sulfur isotopic data show that ore minerals were deposited at temperatures between $340^{\circ}C$ and $200^{\circ}C$ from fluid with salinities of 3 to 6 equiv. wt % NaCl. Evidence of fluid boiling (and $CO_2$ effervescence) indicates a maximum pressures of 100 bars. The formation temperature and $fs_2$, of Au-mineralization from the Namsan mines are mainly $280{\sim}230^{\circ}C$ and $10^{-11}{\sim}10^{-13}$ atm, respectively. Au deposition was likely a result of boiling caused to chemical change (pH, $f_{O2}$, ${\Sigma}_{H_2S{\cdot}{\cdot}}$) of ore-fluids. Sulfur isotope composition of sulfide minerals (${\delta}^{34}S=5.1$ to 8.2‰) are consistent with ${\delta}^{34}S_{{\Sigma}{H2S}}$ value of +6 to +7‰, suggesting an igneous source of sulfur partially mixed with wall-rock sulfur.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.445-454
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• 1995

The petrochemical data of the porphyritic granites of Cretaceous age in the Yonghwa-Seolcheon area show the trend of subalkaline magma, calc-alkaline magma, I-type granitoid and magnetite series. This granite is the relevant igneous rock of gold-silver mineralization in this mining district Fluid inclusions have been studied in phenocryst quartz from the Cretaceous porphyritic granite. Three main types of fluid inclusion were found : liquid-rich inclusion(I type), gas-rich inclusion(II type) and solid-bearing inclusions(III-A, III-B). The solid-bearing inclusions(III-A,B) represent the earliest trapped fluids. They have salinities between 41.0 and 67.5 wt% equivalent to NaCl. These are high saline inclusions containing NaCl and KCl daughter crystals. Homogenization temperature inferred from the fluid inclusion study ranges from 650 to $75^{\circ}C$ Type I and II inclusions were observed within the same fracture. This cause for these differences in degree of filling is evidence of boiling. Salinities of type I and II inclusions range from 9.87 wt% to 15.29 wt%, from 8.40 wt% to 14.64 wt% NaCl equivalent, respectively.