Does environmental risk really change in abandoned mining areas in the medium term when no control measures are taken?

Comprehensive study of electrokinetic-assisted phytoextraction of metals from mine tailings by applying direct and alternate current

“…It was mined from the end of the 19 th century to the first half of the 20 th century for the extraction of sphalerite (ZnS) and galena (PbS) [22]. After field sampling, the tailings (200 kg) were air-dried under room temperature and sieved to 2 mm.…”

A classical modelling of abandoned mine tailings' bioleaching by an autochthonous microbial culture

“…The initial microbial inoculum, as well as the mine tailings used in this work, were taken from real AMD of the abandoned San Quintin mine site. The San Quintín mining site is located in Ciudad Real, Spain, and it was mainly focused on the lead, zinc and silver obtention, being sphalerite (ZnS) and galena (PbS) the most significant ore minerals extracted (Rodríguez et al, 2022). The mine tailings samples were collected in disposable bags and subsequently dried at room ambient temperature for 72 hours.…”

Environmental contamination characteristics of heavy metals from abandoned lead–zinc mine tailings in China

“…During the history of lead-zinc mining, many lead-zinc mine tailing ponds were abandoned in China. Moreover, the environmental risks increase continuously in abandoned mining areas despite the closure of the mining operation and the effects of natural attenuation (Rodríguez et al, 2022). Most early studies evaluated single or limited numbers of mining areas (Zhang et al, 2019;Zhou et al, 2022) and only one study reported on environmental media like soil (Li et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2018;Peng et al, 2022;Shi et al, 2022).…”