Abstract
2000 years of mining activity at Wiesloch, Germanyleft behind a legacy of mining wastes, some of which haveextremely high contents of toxic elements like As, Cd, Tl,Sb, Pb and Zn. To evaluate their long-term impact ondifferent environmental compartments, the detailedenvironmental monitoring presented here focused on themineralogical and chemical characterization of thedifferent waste materials, consisting of dumpings with orefragments, flotation tailings and medieval metallurgicalslags. Leaching experiments with these materials, usingeluents of different compositions and pHs were carried outto assess the conditions governing the mobilization and re-fixation of these species. It was shown, that the carbonatehost rock of the mineralization, the loess blanket coveringthe area and the organically rich municipal sewage sludgesdeposited on top of the tailings, represent potentialbarriers to the dispersion of toxic elements over a muchlarger area. Moreover, particulate emissions from thesteep, unvegetated escarpments of the tailing heapsrepresent a continuous thread to the environment.
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Stüben, D., Berner, Z., Kappes, B. et al. Environmental Monitoring of Heavy Metals and Arsenic from Ag-Pb-Zn Mining. A Case Study over Two Millennia. Environ Monit Assess 70, 181–200 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010663631647
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010663631647