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ABANDONED MINE WASTES (KEMEROVO REGION, RUSSIA): RESOURCES OF TOXIC AND VALUABLE COMPONENTS
Abstract
Mining activity entails accumulation of sulfide?bearing mill wastes with high concentrations of ore elements (Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd) and impurities (As, Hg, Be, and Tl). The volumes of hazardous sulfide-containing mining waste in non-equipped storage facilities according to modern standards reach several billion tons in Russian Federation. The handling of abandoned waste in our country is not currently regulated, the question remains open: there is no established methodology for estimating stockpiles and handling of waste stored in old unaccounted storages. Also, the abandoned mine wastes can be considered as ?man-made deposits? due to high content of valuable components and their volumes. This paper reports on the results of the complex geophysical and geochemical investigation of three abandoned mine tailings Western Siberia, Russia. Today, all objects are in an abandoned state, located on the territory of settlements, are free to visit by the local population, and are also used as recreation areas. The aim of the work was to assess the volumes of man-made bodies, the resources of valuable and toxic components for further calculation of environmental damage and the economic feasibility of processing the waste. When comparing the concentrations of non-ferrous, rare and noble metals, as well as non-metals (As, Sb) in waste with concentrations in the ores of these deposits, high concentrations of Zn, Cu, Pb, As, and Sb were noted. According to the most conservative estimates, three small abandoned dumps in the territory of two Russian cities contain up to 26 % As from his annual production (AP), 7.6 % In, 6.5 % Sb, 0.74 % Hg, 0.52 % Ag, 0.22 % Zn. Of course, we present these figures here only to demonstrate the resources of dumps in the mining regions of the Russian Federation. A separate big question is the probability of their extraction. The information on the contents of potentially toxic components (As, Hg, Be, Tl) in such objects becomes extremely relevant. Further work in this direction is related to the compilation of a register of such objects, the calculation of economic feasibility and environmental damage.
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