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Mobilization and transport of metal-rich colloidal particles from mine tailings into soil under transient chemical and physical conditions

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Abstract

Exposed mine tailing wastes with considerable heavy metals can release hazardous colloidal particles into soil under transient chemical and physical conditions. Two-layered packed columns with tailings above and soils below were established to investigate mobilization and transport of colloidal particles from metal-rich mine tailings into soil under transient infiltration ionic strength (IS: 100, 20, 2 mM) and flow rate (FR: 20.7, 41, and 62.3 mm h−1), with Cu and Pb as representatives of the heavy metals. Results show that the tailing particles within the colloidal size (below 2 μm) were released from the columns. A step-decrease in infiltration IS and FR enhanced, whereas a step-increase in the IS and FR restrained the release of tailing particles from the column. The effects of step-changing FR were unexpected due to the small size of the released tailing particles (220–342 nm, being not sensitive to hydrodynamic shear force), the diffusion-controlled particle release process and the relatively compact pore structure. The tailing particles present in the solution with tested IS were found negatively charged and more stable than soil particles, which provides favorable conditions for tailing particles to be transported over a long distance in the soil. The mobilization and transport of Cu and Pb from the tailings into soil were mediated by the tailing particles. Therefore, the inherent toxic tailing particles could be considerably introduced into soil under certain conditions (IS reduction or FR decrease), which may result in serious environmental pollution.

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Acknowledgments

The work was financially supported by the Land and Resources Scientific Research of China from a special fund in the public interest (No. 201111020), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40872164; 41502240), NPU Foundation for Fundamental Research (Grant No. JCY20130145), the China geological survey project (12120114056201), the graduate starting seed of Northwestern polytechnical university (No. Z2015147), and the Tongguan gold area field scientific observation and research base of the Ministry of Land and Resources of China.

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  1. School of Natural and Applied Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710129, China

    Cong Lu, Yaoguo Wu, Sihai Hu, Muhammad Ali Raza & Yilin Fu

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  1. Cong Lu
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Correspondence to Yaoguo Wu.

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Lu, C., Wu, Y., Hu, S. et al. Mobilization and transport of metal-rich colloidal particles from mine tailings into soil under transient chemical and physical conditions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 8021–8034 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6042-5

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