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Explanation of heavy metal pollution in coal mines of china from the perspective of coal gangue geochemical characteristics

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Abstract

In the process of coal gangue surface accumulation and underground filling disposal, the heavy metals contained in coal gangue will inevitably precipitate out and migrate, which will cause serious environmental pollution. Seventy-five gangue samples of different geological ages are obtained from 25 coal mines in China. The contents of Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, As, Cu, Zn, Mn, Se, and Be in gangue samples are determined. The enrichment coefficients of heavy metal elements in coal gangue are analyzed. The formation of heavy metal elements in gangue is studied by cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The results showed that the contents of Pb, Se, and As in gangue samples formed in Late Carboniferous and Early Permian are highest; the contents of Cr, Cd, Be, Cu, and Zn in gangue samples formed in Late Permian are highest. The later the formation age of coal gangue, the lower the overall enrichment of heavy metal elements. The contents of Cu, Be, Cd, Zn, and Cr in coal gangue are mainly controlled by sedimentation. The contents of Pb and Se are mainly affected by the affinity between heavy metal elements in coal gangue. The affinity between Mn and other heavy metal elements is weak, and sulfur had a certain influence on the content of Mn.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Samuel Zayzay Jr. for useful discussion during the writing of this manuscript.

Funding

Financial support of this work is provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52022107), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China(BK20190031), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2020M681771).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, School of Mines, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Huadong Gao, Yanli Huang, Wei Li, Junmeng Li, Shenyang Ouyang & Tianqi Song

  2. Key Laboratory of Deep Coal Resource Mining of Ministry of Education, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Huadong Gao, Yanli Huang, Wei Li, Junmeng Li, Shenyang Ouyang & Tianqi Song

  3. College of Mining Engineering and Geology, Xinjiang Institute of Engineering, Urumqi, 830000, China

    Yanli Huang

  4. National Energy Group Ningxia Coal Industry Co. LTD, Yinchuan, 750000, China

    Fengyuan Lv, Wen Zhai & Kun Ma

Authors
  1. Huadong Gao
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  2. Yanli Huang
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  3. Wei Li
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  4. Junmeng Li
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  5. Shenyang Ouyang
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  6. Tianqi Song
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  7. Fengyuan Lv
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  8. Wen Zhai
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  9. Kun Ma
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Contributions

Conceptualization: HG, YH, JL, and TS; formal analysis: HG, WL, FL, and WZ; investigation: HG, SO, and KM; methodology: WL, JL, and TS; project administration: YH and HG; writing—original draft: HG; writing—review and editing: all coauthors; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanli Huang.

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Gao, H., Huang, Y., Li, W. et al. Explanation of heavy metal pollution in coal mines of china from the perspective of coal gangue geochemical characteristics. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 65363–65373 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14766-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14766-w

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