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In situ remediation of arsenic-rich mine tailings using slag zero valence iron

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2020

Tingting Yue ,
Shu Chen  and
Jing Liu Open the ORCID record for Jing Liu [Opens in a new window]
Tingting Yue
Affiliation:
School of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing400715China The Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource, Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang621010China
Shu Chen
Affiliation:
The Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource, Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang621010China
Jing Liu*
Affiliation:
School of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing400715China
*
*Author for correspondence: Jing Liu, Email: Liujing-vip@163.com
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Abstract

Arsenopyrite (FeAsS) and realgar (As4S4) are two common arsenic minerals that often cause serious environmental issues. Centralised treatment of arsenic-containing tailings can reduce land occupation and save management costs. The current work examined the remediation schemes of tailings from Hunan Province, China, where by different tailings containing arsenopyrite and realgar were blended with exogenous slag zero valence iron (ZVI). Introducing Fe-oxidising bacteria (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans) recreates a biologically oxidative environment. All bioleaching experiments were done over three stages, each for 7 days and the solid phase of all tests was characterised by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and selective extraction analyses. The results showed that the mixture group reduced arsenic release by 72.9–74.7% compared with the control group. The addition of 0.2 g ZVI clearly decreased arsenic release, and the addition of 4.0 g ZVI led to the lowest arsenic release among all tests. The decrease of arsenic released from the tailings was due to the adsorption and uptake of arsenic by secondary iron-containing minerals and Fe–As(V) secondary mineralisation. The addition of large amounts of ZVI reduced the arsenic detected in the amorphous Fe precipitates. Therefore, a low cost and integrated strategy to reduce arsenic release from tailings is to mix two typical tailings and apply exogenous slag ZVI, which can apply to the in situ remediation of two kinds or more arsenic-containing tailings.

Keywords

arsenic releaserealgararsenopyritezero valence ironShimen mine areatailings
Type
Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , pp. 420 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2020

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Footnotes

Associate Editor: Runliang Zhu

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