Abstract
Waste and lithological rocks were subjected to aqueous leaching, acid base accounting (ABA), and net acid generation (NAG) tests, and detailed mineralogical investigations were conducted to predict acid mine drainage (AMD) formation at Turkey’s largest historical copper deposits. The field water chemistry from springs and seeps on the mine site were compared with the static and long term aqueous leaching test results. During the ABA, NAG and long term paste pH tests, ore rich and ore bearing wastes showed a paste pH <4, implying their acid generating nature. The relationship between net neutralization potential and acid producing potential revealed that waste rocks with a low sulfur content were generally low potential sources of AMD. Consistent with the static test results, aqueous leaching tests revealed that greater concentrations of Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd, Co and As were released from the wastes rich in pyrite. The test methods all generally agreed that the ore-rich wastes (O, P1C, P1D) were the main sources of AMD and metal contamination in the district.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 56-74 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Mine Water and the Environment |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.
Funding
This project was supported by the Istanbul Technical University Scientific Research Division Grant to NB (37260). We thank Dr. Paul Schroeder for his valuable comments on the XRD data and Dr. Aral Okay for kindly providing sandstone samples from the Çağlayan formation (i51, i52; Okay et al. , ).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Istanbul Technical University Scientific Research Division | 37260 |
Keywords
- ABA static tests
- Acid production
- Aqueous leaching
- Küre VMS copper deposits
- Long term paste pH
- Paste pH
