Environmental Geochemistry and Acid Mine Drainage Evaluation of an Abandoned Coal Waste Pile at the Alborz-Sharghi Coal Washing Plant, NE Iran
- University of Tehran, School of Mining, College of Engineering (Iran, Islamic Republic of)
- Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering (Iran, Islamic Republic of)
In this paper, an abandoned waste coal pile, which is resulted from Alborz-Sharghi coal washing plant, NE of Iran was mineralogically and geochemically characterized to evaluate pyrite oxidation, acid mine drainage (AMD) generation, and trace element mobility. After digging ten trenches and vertical sampling, a quantitative method including the atomic absorption test, and the quality-based methods including optical study were carried out for determination of pyrite fractions in the waste pile. The geochemical results revealed that the fraction of remaining pyrite increased with depth, indicating that pyrite oxidation is limited to the shallower depths of the pile which were confirmed by variations of sulfate, pH, EC, and carbonate with depth of the pile. To evaluate the trend of trace elements and mineralogical constituents of the waste particles, the samples were analyzed by using XRD, ICP-MS, and ICP-OES methods. The results showed the secondary and neutralizing minerals comprising gypsum have been formed below the oxidation zone. Besides, positive values of net neutralization potential indicated that AMD generation has not taken in the waste pile. In addition, variations of trace elements with depth reveal that Pb and Zn exhibited increasing trends from pile surface toward the bottom sampling trenches while another of them such as Cu and Ni had decreasing trends with increasing depth of the waste pile.
- OSTI ID:
- 22612701
- Journal Information:
- Natural Resources Research (New York, N.Y.), Vol. 25, Issue 3; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2016 International Association for Mathematical Geosciences; http://www.springer-ny.com; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1520-7439
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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