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Migration of rare earth elements in the topsoil of abandoned mines under rainfall leaching

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Abstract

Study of the geochemistry behavior of rare earth elements into the soil driven by exploration will contribute to better environmental management. Thereby, we investigated the topsoil samples of different slopes from an abandoned ionic rare earth mine tailing with stimulated rainfall leaching. The results show that the elements migrated during the leaching, mainly light rare earth elements changed in the topsoil of the upper and middle slopes, while both light and heavy rare earth elements significantly altered in the lower slope. The abnormal value δCe can illustrate the distribution of rare earth elements in the soil developed by mining activities.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC0502905), and the Key Project to Guide Social Development of Fujian Province, China (No. 2020N5007) and the Education Research for Young and middle-aged Teachers of Fujian Educational Bureau, China (No. JAT200292).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of History and Geography, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, 363000, Fujian, China

    Haibin Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory for Subtropical Mountain Ecology of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Fujian Province, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, Fujian, China

    Haibin Chen, Zhibiao Chen, Zhiqiang Chen & Xiaolin Ou

  3. School of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, Fujian, China

    Haibin Chen, Zhibiao Chen, Zhiqiang Chen & Xiaolin Ou

  4. Faculty of Horticultural Department of Dendrology and Floriculture, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest, 1118, Hungary

    Haimei Chen

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  1. Haibin Chen
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Correspondence to Zhibiao Chen.

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Chen, H., Chen, Z., Chen, Z. et al. Migration of rare earth elements in the topsoil of abandoned mines under rainfall leaching. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 328, 1189–1198 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07741-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07741-9

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