Geochemical consequences of differential settling of gold tailings
Differential settling of sulfides and carbonates from a mill discharge resulted in lateral zoning across the tailings at the Central Manitoba Gold Mine site. Close to the discharge, sulphide rich tailings have depleted acid neutralizing calcite resulting in a pH of～3. Distal areas, which accumulated less-dense carbonaterich tailings, now have a pH of 7-8. This has produced a lateral colour zonation across the tailings with an active chemical front characterized by green bands which concentrate Cu-rich minerals such as brochantite.``The tailings deposit contains two ponds, the barren Blue Pond located near the discharge point and the Green Pond 100 m north of the mill site. The Blue Pond is impacted by acidic drainage from carbonate-poor, sulphiderich tailings, and characterized by a pH of 4.4 ± 0.1. Further from the water source, the Green Pond is surrounded by tailings with higher carbonate than sulphide content, resulting in a pH of 7.4 ± 0.4. Aluminum and copper are dissolved from the acidic oxidized tailings, precipitated in slimes in streams and then washed into the Blue Pond, where dissolution ofAl(OH)3(s), jurbanite and basaluminite maintain the constant pH.
Barbara L.Sherriff Nicolay Sidenko
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
国际会议
第十二届水-岩相互作用国际研讨会(P0roceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction)
昆明
英文
1255-1259
2007-07-31（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）