Geochemistry of selected mercury mine-tailings in the Parkfield Mercury District, California

Rytuba, James J.; Kotlyar, Boris B.; Wilkerson, Gregg; Olson, Jerry Chipman

doi:10.3133/ofr01336

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…This produced calcines and secondary Hg and Fe minerals (mainly metacinnabar and Fe oxides), which were dumped near the metallurgical facilities. The concentration of Hg in calcines varies greatly, but is usually greater than 1000 ppm (Gosar et al, 1997;Rytuba, 2000;Rytuba et al, 2001;Gray et al, 2002;Gray, 2003;Loredo et al, 2003;Zhang et al, 2004). In this study, the concentration of Hg in calcines ranged from 330 to 1000 ppm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Mercury mobility in mine waste from Hg-mining areas in Almería, Andalusia (Se Spain)

Navarro¹,

Cardellach²,

Corbella³

2009

Journal of Geochemical Exploration

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Mercury mobility in mine waste from Hg-mining areas in Almería, Andalusia (Se Spain)

Navarro¹,

Cardellach²,

Corbella³

2009

Journal of Geochemical Exploration

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“…Likewise, arsenic exerts a toxic effect in a variety of organisms, including humans [4,5]. Because of their harmfulness, many studies have been aimed at assessing mercury [6][7][8][9] and arsenic [5,10,11] contents and their mobility in different environmental compartments, especially in highly mineralized areas exploited by mining activities where concentrations up to 1000 mg/kg were measured in mine waste and alluvial sediments [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentological, Mineralogical and Geochemical Features of Late Quaternary Sediment Profiles from the Southern Tuscany Hg Mercury District (Italy): Evidence for the Presence of Pre-Industrial Mercury and Arsenic Concentrations

Pasquetti

Vaselli

Zanchetta

et al. 2020

Water

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Southern Tuscany (Italy) is an important metallogenic district that hosts relevant S-polymetallic deposits that have intensely been exploited for centuries. Consequently, potential toxic elements, such as Hg and As, are widely distributed in the surrounding environment. In this paper, an extensive sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical study of two Late Quaternary sediment profiles, partially outcropping along the coast of southern Tuscany (Ansedonia area), was carried out to evaluate the contents and mobility of Hg and As with the aims to contribute to the definition of the geochemical baseline of southern Tuscany before the human intervention and evaluate the potential dispersion of these harmful elements. The sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical (major elements) features revealed that the studied profiles are mostly related to the local geological characteristics and the Quaternary geological history of the area. The concentrations and the normalized patterns of trace and rare earth elements highlighted the absence of any anthropogenic activity. This implies that the studied samples are to be regarded as good proxies for evaluating the geochemical baseline of southern Tuscany before the intense mining activity. The enrichment factors (EF) of most trace elements were indeed lower or close to 2, indicating a variability close to the average concentration of the Upper Continental Crust (UCC), while other elements slightly enriched, such as Pb, were in agreement with the natural baseline reported for southern Tuscany. Mercury and As displayed EF values >40 when compared to the average contents of UCC, although they decrease down to 4 when compared to the suggested baseline for southern Tuscany. The higher Hg and As contents detected in this study, inferred to natural sources, evidenced (i) the great natural variability occurring in largely mineralized areas and (ii) the importance of estimating reference environmental parameters in order to avoid misleading interpretations of the detected anomalies. Moreover, the results of leaching test on sediment samples denoted a relatively low mobility of Hg and As, suggesting that these elements are preferentially mobilized by transport of clastic sediments and such anomalies may be preserved for relatively long times in Quaternary sediments. However, leachable Hg (0.6–9.7 μg/L) and As (2.1–42.2 μg/L) concentrations are significantly high when compared to those of the Italian limit for groundwater (1 µg/L for Hg and 10 µg/L for As). Quaternary sediments from southern Tuscany could then be a potential, though natural, source of Hg and As to groundwater systems.

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“…As a consequence, Hg mining areas may affect the territory where the extraction, preparation, heating and condensation processes are occurring, enhancing environmental concerns. Pollution can be derived by mine-waste calcines, usually containing high contents of Hg ( 41000 mg kg À 1 ; Gosar et al, 1997;Rytuba, 2000;Rytuba et al, 2001;Gray et al, 2002Gray et al, , 2004Gray, 2003;Loredo et al, 2003;Zhang et al, 2004;Navarro et al, 2009) and related to unconverted cinnabar and formation of metacinnabar, HgO and other Hg salts (e.g. Kim et al, 2003;Gray et al, 2010 and references within) that interact with meteoric waters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of gaseous Hg in the Mercury mining district of Mt. Amiata (Central Italy): A geochemical survey prior the reclamation project

Vaselli

Higueras

Nisi

et al. 2013

Environmental Research

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The Mt. Amiata volcano is the youngest and largest volcanic edifice in Tuscany (central-northern Italy) and is characterized by a geothermal field, exploited for the production of electrical energy. In the past Mt. Amiata was also known as a world-class Hg district whose mining activity was mainly distributed in the central-eastern part of this silicic volcanic complex, and particularly in the municipality of Abbadia San Salvatore. In the present work we report a geochemical survey on Hg(0) measurements related to the former mercury mine facilities prior the reclamation project. The Hg(0) measurements were carried out by car for long distance regional surveys, and on foot for local scale surveys by using two LUMEX (915+ and M) devices. This study presents the very first Hg(0) data obtained with this analytical technique in the Mt. Amiata area. The facilities related to the mining areas and structures where cinnabar was converted to metallic Hg are characterized by high Hg values (>50,000ngm(-3)), although the urban center of Abbadia San Salvatore, few hundred meters away, does not appear to be receiving significant pollution from the calcine area and former industrial edifices, all the recorded values being below the values recommended by the issuing Tuscany Region authorities (300ngm(-3)) and in some cases approaching the Hg background levels (3-5ngm(-3)) for the Mt. Amiata area.

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Geochemistry of selected mercury mine-tailings in the Parkfield Mercury District, California

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Mercury mobility in mine waste from Hg-mining areas in Almería, Andalusia (Se Spain)

Mercury mobility in mine waste from Hg-mining areas in Almería, Andalusia (Se Spain)

Sedimentological, Mineralogical and Geochemical Features of Late Quaternary Sediment Profiles from the Southern Tuscany Hg Mercury District (Italy): Evidence for the Presence of Pre-Industrial Mercury and Arsenic Concentrations

Distribution of gaseous Hg in the Mercury mining district of Mt. Amiata (Central Italy): A geochemical survey prior the reclamation project

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