The potential use of dust particles trapped on Scots pine needles for tracking dust migration around flotation tailings ponds in the Silesian-Krakowian ore district, Southern Poland was tested. 1-, 2- and 3-years old needles were studied using a scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. Particle sizes and morphologies, and the nature of the compounds hosting metals ions, were examined. A large majority of the particles examined are <10 microm in size. Almost 80% of particles represent respirable dust. All the components in the flotation wastes appear among the chemical compounds identified in particles on the pine needles. The quantity of the waste particles decreases with distance from the flotation tailings ponds. The analysis of dust particles on pine needles could be a useful method for estimating vectors and travel distances of suspended dust migrating around open flotation tailings ponds and around other point sources emitting dust particles with chemical compositions differing from the environmental background.

The research was carried out around dumps made at the beginning of twentieth century linked to Zn-Pb ore mining of deposits of Mississippi Valley type in Southern Poland. Soil algae communities were investigated near spoil dumps rich in Zn, Pb, Fe, Cd, and Tl. In algal crusts, Chlorophyta and Cyanophyta occur in filament forms such as Stichococcus bacillaris, Stichococcus chlorelloides, S. cf. fragilis, and Cylindrocapsa sp. The algal crusts form aggregates containing metal-bearing minerals and algal organic material. The development of the crusts occur on sandy-clayey soils poor in water and highly enriched in heavy metals (up to 68,800 mg kg −1 for Zn, 85,060 mg kg −1 for Pb, 369 mg kg −1 for Cd and 355 mg kg −1 for Tl). Algal-crust formation is an important initial stage which facilitates vascular plant succession and topsoil formation. The results of investigation of algal material with ESEM are presented and the mineral phases in the top soil layer based on the XRD and EDS are described. The results indicate the presence of secondary labile minerals of lead, e.g., anglesite and plumbojarosite and minerals of Zn, e.g., smithsonite and minrecordite.

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This study aims at detailed characteristics and comparison between dusts from various iron and non-ferrous metal production processes in order to identify individual mineral phases, chemical composition, and their influence on the values of magnetic susceptibility. Various analytical methods used include inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and Mössbauer spectroscopy integrated with magnetic susceptibility measurements and thermomagnetic analysis. Metallurgical wastes that have arisen at different production stages of iron and non-ferrous steel are subjected to investigation. The analyzed dust samples from the iron and non-ferrous metallurgy differ in terms of magnetic susceptibility as well as their mineral and chemical composition. The research confirmed the presence of many very different mineral phases. In particular, interesting phases have been observed in non-ferrous dust, for example challacolloite, which was found for the first time in the dusts of non-ferrous metallurgy. Other characteristic minerals found in non-ferrous metallurgy dusts are zincite, anglesite, and lanarkite, while dusts of iron metallurgy contain mostly metallic iron and iron-bearing minerals (magnetite, hematite, franklinite, jacobsite, and wüstite), but also significant amounts of zincite and calcite.

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