• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.19-21
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• 2001

The Shiheung mine was closed in 1972 and has been abandoned since then. Although some restoration work has been done, there still remain mine failings in and around the mine, posing a potential environmental hazard. Mine tailings and the porewater extracted from the tailing were investigated to see any evidence of elemental release and migration to adjacent groundwater and soil in the field. The pHs of the tailing range from 6.24 to 7.23. Calcite in the studied area seems to influence on such neutral pH range. Depth profile of mine tailing demonstrate elements have been leached and removed as a consequence of weathering during disposal. This is also supported by the findings from porewater analysis, corresponding the trends in the mine tailings. The concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn in the tailing porewater exceed the standard value of EPA for drinking water and this implies groundwater can be contaminated through infiltration of the porewaters, which ultimately will be discharged as leachate from the mine tailing. Groundwater samples collected near the mine area do not show high metal concentrations, except for Fe, which were detected over drinking water standard.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.461-470
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• 2001

The Shihung mine was restored in the early 90's after abandonment for 20 yews since 1973. Although disposed mine tailings were removed and the site was replaced by an incineration plant, still some residual mine tailings remain in the places including the old mine tailing ditposal area and the adjacent agricultural area. These residual mine tailings are prone to impose an adverse impact on the soil and groundwater and needs investigation for the potential contamination. Mine tailing samples were collected from the old tailing disposal area and the iii paddy. The porewater from the mine tailing were extracted and analysed to investigate chemical changes along the reaction path. Batch leaching tests were also carried out in the laboratory to find any supporting evidence found in the field analysis. Evidence of elemental leaching was confirmed both by the mine tailing and the porewater chemistry in them. The element concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn in the porewater exceed the standard for drinking water of Korean government and US EPA. Leaching of heavy metals from the mine tailing seem to be responsible for the contamination. In batch leaching test. heavy metals were either continuous1y released or declined rapidly. Combining the information with porewater variation with depths and the geochemical meodeling results, most of elements are controlled by dissolution and/or precipitation processes, with some solubility controlling solid phases (Cu, Pb, Fe and Zn). Batch leaching test conducted at fixed pH 4 showed much higher releases for the heavy metals up to 400 times (Zn) and this area is becoming more vulnerable to soil and groundwater pollution as precipitation pH shifts to acidic condition.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.175-183
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• 1999

Mine tailings, field soils, and paddy soils around Jingok abandoned mine were analyzed In order to investigate their pollution levels of heavy metals and cyanide. The average contents of As, Cd, Cu. Hg. Pb, Zn, and CN￣in mine tailings were 3.94$\times$$10^3$, 14.3, 266, 6.13, 4.07$\times$$10^3$, 2.51$\times$$10^3$, and 1.19mg/kg, respectively. The pollution indices calculated by the tolerance level of Kloke were 32~58 and the pH values were slightly acidic in mine tailings. In the field and paddy soils of Jingok abandoned mine area except for soils nearby mine tailings, concentrations of the heavy metals were less than standards of soil pollution of agricultural area in the environmental protection law.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 1999

Mine tailings, soils. stream sediments around Gubong disused mine were analyzed in order to investigate their distribution and pollution levels of heavy metals and cyanide. The average contents of As, Cd, Cu. Hg, Pb, Zn, and CN￣ in mine tailings were 6.93$\times$$10^{3}$, 56.9, 209, 5.03, 3.25$\times$$10^{3}$, 1.89$\times$$10^{3}$, 21mg/kg respectively. The pollution indices that calculated by the tolerance level of Kloke were 42~95 and the pH values were slightly alkaline in mine tailings. The contents of heavy metals and cyanide in field soils near the mine were higher than the paddy soils. The contents of heavy metals in the stream sediment were up to that of the tailings, so contamination from the mine tailings were serious.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.33-44
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• 1998

Mine tailings, soils, stream sediments, and ground water around Imcheon disused mine were analyzed in order to investigate their pollution levels of heavy metals and cyanide. The average contents of As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn, and CN￣ in mine tailings were 366, 28.8, 202, 15.2, 1.97$\times$$10^3$, 3.85$\times$$10^3$, 90.6mg/kg respectively, The pollution indices that calculated by the tolerance level of Kloke were 8~19 and the pH values were acidic in mine tailngs. In the field and paddy soils of Imcheon disused mine area except for soils nearby mine tailngs, concentraitons of the heavy metals were less than standards of soil pollution of agricultral area in the environmental protection law. The nitrate contents In the ground water for drink were more than tolerance level of the drinking water of Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.17-25
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• 2018

The Boroo area in Mongolia is known to have been contaminated with heavy metals due to irregular gold mining activities and the release of mercury from gold extraction process. Soil and mine tailings were collected to analyze contamination patterns of heavy metals in the Boroo area. Analyses revealed that mercury, arsenic and cadmium concentrations exceeded the regulatory standard of the nation (Mongolia National Standard). In case of mercury, about 80% of the survey area was over the limit and the concentration distribution heavily influenced by influx of mercury through water transport. Soil contamination by arsenic was most severe that the concentration exceeded the regulatory limit in almost entire survey area, showing peak concentrations at nearby streams and river along with ore processing facilities. For cadmium, about 20% of the survey area was over the limit with the concentration distribution similar to that of arsenic.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.69-80
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• 1997

This investigation was conducted to provide information for characteristics of environmental pollution by the heavy metals from the abandoned gold mine in order to characterize the distribution patterns and environmental damages of the contaminants to the surrounding environment. Through analysis of CN, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, As, Cr, and Hg in a mine tailings, paddy soils, and stream sediments, the physico-chemical properties of the mine tailings and paddy soils were measured. The pH's were 5.4, 8.4 for the paddy soil and mine tailing, respectively. The maximum contents of CN, Pb, Cd, and As the in mine tailing were 99.98, 1,752.72, 31.88, and 298.50 mg/kg, respectively. The amounts of these ions were higher than the standard level of industrial area in Korea. The average content of CN and heavy metals in the paddy soils were higher than the background level of heavy metals in the unpolluted paddy soils around the mine. Especially, the contents of heavy metals in the paddy soils along the adjacent stream were higher compared to the paddy soil that was not influenced by the mine tailings. The contents of CN and heavy metals in the stream sediment close to the mine area were similar to those of the mine tailings, but decreased along the distance of the stream farther away from the tailings that was the source of these pollutants.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.85-93
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• 2013

This study is conducted to evaluate the leaching of contaminants from mine tailing by natural water and finally to estimate the leaching and transportation of heavy metal contaminants by rainfall. In order to identify contaminated heavy metal of soil, 17 soil, 2 tailing and 2 waste dump and 2 control samples were taken at mine area and analyzed total metal contents. The leaching experiments were conducted using distilled water. Cu, Pb, Zn was extracted from the reddish mine tailing in a short period time, especially the extraction rate of Cu (45.0%) was highest. The contaminants were leached from the yellowish mine tailing within an hour and the leaching rate of Cd (42.0%) and Zn (17.2%) were relatively high. The reddish soil from the waste dump showed leaching of Cu (5.1%), Pb (4.0%) and Zn (3.3%), however the leaching rate was low except Mi (14.2%). From the yellowish soil sampled from the dumping site, the leaching of Cu (8.2%) and Ni (9.7%) was high while the leaching of Zn (0.2%) were relatively low.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.743-747
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• 2005

In South Korea, about 900 metal mines have been abandoned, and about 88 million-t metal mine wastes have been discarded in recent years. The treatment of the tailings which are the main wastes in the abandoned metal mines becomes a social problem because they cause environmental pollution such as acidic waste water generation, groundwater contamination, and dust generation. Since almost whole quantities of the tailings have disposed by landfill now, the development of effective recycling methods for the tailings are strongly requested. It is expected that the fine tailings obtained by centrifugal separation process among the tailings can be utilized as admixture for cement. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the micro-structure of cement mortar admixed with fine tailing. Various admixtures were made of Fine tailings and 2 Types of OPC, fly-ash and blast furnace slag. The hydration reactivity of cement mortar with FT was examined by Porosity, XRD and SEM morphology analysis. The anolytical result about hardened hydrates shows that waste fine tailing help hydrates none densified due to it,s filling-space, These densified effect is concluded with improving the resistance to attack of cement mortar including waste fine tailing.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.29-36
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• 2010

Several mines including Namil, Solim and Jungbong which are located in the Gyeonggi and Kangwon province have been abandoned and closed since 1980 due to "The promotion policy of mining industry". An enormous amount of mining wastes was disposed without proper treatment, which caused soil pollution in tailing dam and ore-dressing plant areas. However, any quantitative assessment was not performed about soil and water pollution by transporting mining wastes such as acid mine drainage, mine tailing, and rocky waste. In this research, heavy metals in mining wastes were analyzed according to leaching method which used 0.1 N HCl and total solution method which used Aqua-regia to recognize the ecological effect of distance from hot spot. We sampled tailings, rocky wastes and soils around the abandoned mine. Chemical and physical parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total organic carbon (TOC), soil texture and heavy metal concentration were analyzed. The range of soil's pH is between 4.3 and 6.4 in the tailing dam and oredressing plant area due to mining activity. Total concentrations of As, Cu, and Pb in soil near ore dressing plant area are 250.9, 249.3 and 117.2 mg/kg respectively, which are higher than any other ones near tailing dam area. Arsenic concentration in tailing dams is 31.0 mg/kg, which is also considered as heavily polluted condition comparing with the remediation required level(RRL) in "Soil environment conservation Act".