Geological and Mineralogical Control on the Environmental Risk of Potentially Toxic Elements in Mine Waste Heaps: A Risk Mitigation Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

Mining produces the second largest waste stream in the world. Modern mines, as well as abandoned mines, are responsible for significant environmental damage throughout the world and can pollute air and drinking water, harm wildlife and habitat, and permanently scar natural landscapes. Acid mine drainage carrying high concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) such as Pb, As, Cd, Zn and Ni is the primary source of water and soil pollution from mining. Acid mine drainage chemistry has been thoroughly studied and modelled with a view to developing treatment and remediation technology. The environmental risk of PTEs depends on their mobility: liberation from the weathering host primary minerals and capture by the precipitated secondary mineral phases. These processes have recently been received increasing attention in relation to the extreme weather conditions induced by climate change. The environmental risk of PTEs also depends on their form: their speciation to various pools and solid phases such as the labile exchangeable phase, the iron oxyhydroxide phase, or organic compounds. The due consideration of the rock and mineralogical conditions as PTE sources, and the proper view on climate-related weathering conditions, such as geo-environmental models, may offer risk mitigation solutions adaptable to site-specific conditions.

This Special Issue aims at bringing together state-of-the-art studies on PTE behavior in mine waste (waste rock and tailings) heaps whose focus is on the geological and mineralogical control on PTE mobility, liberation by weathering and deposition by secondary geochemical processes with a risk mitigation perspective under various climatic conditions and on effective remediation control.

Dr. Gyozo Jordan
Prof. Dr. Gyorgy Heltai
Guest Editors

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• mine waste
• heavy metals
• mineralogy
• rock
• potentially toxic elements
• modelling
• mobility
• speciation
• fractionation
• remediation control