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Arsenic partitioning among particle-size fractions of mine wastes and stream sediments from cinnabar mining districts

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Abstract

Tailings from abandoned mercury mines represent an important pollution source by metals and metalloids. Mercury mining in Asturias (north-western Spain) has been carried out since Roman times until the 1970s. Specific and non-specific arsenic minerals are present in the paragenesis of the Hg ore deposit. As a result of intensive mining operations, waste materials contain high concentrations of As, which can be geochemically dispersed throughout surrounding areas. Arsenic accumulation, mobility and availability in soils and sediments are strongly affected by the association of As with solid phases and granular size composition. The objective of this study was to examine phase associations of As in the fine grain size subsamples of mine wastes (La Soterraña mine site) and stream sediments heavily affected by acid mine drainage (Los Rueldos mine site). An arsenic-selective sequential procedure, which categorizes As content into seven phase associations, was applied. In spite of a higher As accumulation in the finest particle-size subsamples, As fractionation did not seem to depend on grain size since similar distribution profiles were obtained for the studied granulometric fractions. The presence of As was relatively low in the most mobile forms in both sites. As was predominantly linked to short-range ordered Fe oxyhydroxides, coprecipitated with Fe and partially with Al oxyhydroxides and associated with structural material in mine waste samples. As incorporated into short-range ordered Fe oxyhydroxides was the predominant fraction at sediment samples, representing more than 80 % of total As.

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Author notes

  1. Raquel Larios

    Present address: LGC Limited, Queens Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LY, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ETS Ingenieros de Minas, Dpto. de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, Independencia, 13, 33004, Oviedo, Spain

    Veronica Silva, Jorge Loredo & Almudena Ordóñez

  2. Unidad de Espectroscopía, División de Química, Dpto. de Tecnología, CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense, 40, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Rodolfo Fernández-Martínez, Raquel Larios, Belén Gómez & Isabel Rucandio

Authors
  1. Veronica Silva
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  2. Jorge Loredo
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  3. Rodolfo Fernández-Martínez
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  4. Raquel Larios
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  5. Almudena Ordóñez
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  6. Belén Gómez
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  7. Isabel Rucandio
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Correspondence to Isabel Rucandio.

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Silva, V., Loredo, J., Fernández-Martínez, R. et al. Arsenic partitioning among particle-size fractions of mine wastes and stream sediments from cinnabar mining districts. Environ Geochem Health 36, 831–843 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9602-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9602-y

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