IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i13p2355-d245287.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Physical Properties on the Leaching of Potentially Toxic Elements from Antimony Ore Processing Wastes

Author

Listed:
  • Saijun Zhou

    (College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China)

  • Andrew Hursthouse

    (Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Shale Gas Resource Utilization, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
    School Computing, Engineering & Physical Science, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK)

Abstract

This study reports on the assessment of the impact of antimony mine wastes from Xikuangshan (XKS) Antimony Mine in Lengshuijiang City, Hunan Province. We focus on the leaching of a number of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) from residues from the processing of antimony ore. The PTE content of ore processing waste and solutions generated by leaching experiments were determined for a suite of PTEs associated with the ore mineralization. These were Sb, As, Hg, Pb, Cd and Zn. As anticipated, high concentrations of the PTEs were identified in the waste materials, far exceeding the standard background values for soil in Hunan Province. For Sb and As, values reached >1800 mg·kg −1 and >1200 mg·kg −1 , respectively (>600 and >90 times higher than the soil background). The leaching of Sb, As, Hg, Pb, Cd and Zn decreased with an increase in grain size and leachable portions of metal ranged between 0.01% to 1.56% of total PTE content. Leaching tests identified the release of PTEs through three stages: a. alkaline mineral dissolution and H + exchanging with base cation; b. oxidation and acid production from pyrite and other reducing minerals; and c. the adsorption and precipitation of PTEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Saijun Zhou & Andrew Hursthouse, 2019. "The Impact of Physical Properties on the Leaching of Potentially Toxic Elements from Antimony Ore Processing Wastes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:13:p:2355-:d:245287
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/13/2355/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/13/2355/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hyacinthe Kouakou Kouassi & Toru Murayama & Mitsuru Ota, 2022. "Life Cycle Analysis and Cost–Benefit Assessment of the Waste Collection System in Anyama, Cote d’Ivoire," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:13:p:2355-:d:245287. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.