A concise method for mine soils analysis
A large number of abandoned hard rock mines exist in Colorado and other mountain west states, many on public property. Public pressure and resulting policy changes have become a driving force in the reclamation of these sites. Two of the key reclamation issues for these sites in the occurrence of acid forming materials (AFMs) in mine soils, and acid mine drainage (AMD) issuing from mine audits. An AMD treatment system design project for the Forest Queen mine in Colorado's San Juan mountains raised the need for a simple, useable method for analysis of mine land soils, both for suitability as a construction material, and to determine the AFM content and potential for acid release. The authors have developed a simple, stepwise, go - no go test for the analysis of mine soils. Samples were collected from a variety of sites in the Silverton, CO area, and subjected to three tiers of tests including: paste pH, Eh, and 10% HCl fizz test; then total digestion in HNO{sub 3}/HCl, neutralization potential, exposure to meteoric water, and toxicity content leaching procedure (TCLP). All elemental analyses were performed with an inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometer. Elimination of samples via the first two testing tiers left two remaining samples, which were subsequently subjected to column and sequential batch tests, with further elemental analysis by ICP. Based on these tests, one sample was chosen for suitability as a constructing material for the Forest Queen treatment system basins. Further simplification, and testing on two pairs of independent soil samples, has resulted in a final analytical method suitable for general use.
- Research Organization:
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20023310
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 16th Annual National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation, Scottsdale, AZ (US), 08/13/1999--08/19/1999; Other Information: PBD: [1999]; Related Information: In: Mining and reclamation for the next millennium. Proceedings of the 16th annual national meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation, by Bengson, S.A.; Bland, D.M. [eds.], 745 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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