Effectiveness of Protective Layers in Reducing Metal Fluxes from Flooded Pre-Oxidized Mine Tailings

Abstract

A problem in implementing water covers over existing tailingimpoundments is the dissolution of minerals produced throughoxidation and the subsequent flux of metals into the water cover.One possible solution is to place a protective layer of non-reactive soil at the tailings/water interface to inhibit metaltransport. A laboratory evaluation of different water coversystems was performed employing columns packed with tailingssubmerged beneath 1 m of water. A ten-centimeter layer of sand orpeat was placed at the tailings/water interface. The experimentswere kept stagnant for 183 days, and then flushed with water at asteady rate for 468 days. Both protective covers prevented degradation of water cover qualityfor the duration of the experiments, as pH exceeded 5.5; however,the quality of the tailings pore water remained poor and evendeclined slightly from pH > 4 to pH < 3. Leaching of iron andsulphate from the tailings with a sand protective layer ceasedduring the experiments. Conversely, in the columns with a peatlayer, substantial leaching of metals and sulphate from thetailings continued to the end of the experiments. It ispostulated that the peat is a source of chelating agents, such asorganic acids, which are known to accelerate the dissolution ofcertain minerals formed through weathering. The sensitivity ofmetal transfer rates to the thickness and type of protectivecover above the tailings were modelled. A 10-cm peat layer waspredicted to prevent substantial degradation of the water coverfor at least ten years.