Abstract
Bioremediation phenomena of soils contaminated with heavy metals have not been considered a key sustainability issue for the mining industry until recently. At least, this is what can be deduced from the huge amount of mining activities spread out worldwide. Nevertheless, mine wastes accumulated over long periods of time have a negative impact on the landscape and pose serious threats to ecosystems. Far from being solved, this issue is becoming more acute as the metalliferous mining industry is seriously affected by the cutoff grades decline of natural resources. The mining district of Sierra Cartagena-La Unión in southeast Spain, with a total area of 100 km2, is a good example of poor mine practices. Metal extraction (Ag, Pb, and Zn) from sulfide mineral ores in this mining area dates back before Roman times. Consequently, large amounts of mining wastes have been accumulated over the centuries close to human settlements. Facts like this, underestimated in the past, could be a potential source of metal propagation with possible detrimental effects on human health. In this work, a bioremediation study has been accomplished in a metalliferous contaminated soil considering different particle size fractions. Each fraction, including the global material waste, has been chemically characterized using an ad hoc approach, followed by its mineralogical characterization. The investigation has been focused on the effect of bioaugmentation on metal mobilization and redistribution of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Cu, Fe) among different soil fractions.
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Cortez, H., Ballester, A., González, F., Blázquez, M.L., Muñoz, J.A. (2017). Bioremediation of Sulfide Mine Tailings: Response of Different Soil Fractions. In: Anjum, N., Gill, S., Tuteja, N. (eds) Enhancing Cleanup of Environmental Pollutants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55426-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55426-6_8
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