Using geophysical methods to characterize an abandoned uranium mining site, Portugal

Ramalho, Elsa Cristina; Carvalho, João P. G.; Barbosa, Sofia; Santos, Fernando A. Monteiro

doi:10.1016/j.jappgeo.2008.08.010

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Ground geophysics commonly is used for characterizing waste dumps from mine sites (e.g., Poisson et al, 2009;Ramalho et al, 2009). Rutley and Fallon (2000) described the use of AEM to map the location at which contaminated groundwater was seeping from a tailings dump.…”

Section: Case Histories For Mine-environment Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metalliferous mining geophysics — State of the art after a decade in the new millennium

2011

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Mining exploration was very active during the first decade of the twenty-first century because there were numerous advances in the science and technology that geophysicists were using for mineral exploration. Development came from different sources: instrumentation improvements, new numerical algorithms, and cross-fertilization with the seismic industry. In gravity, gradiometry kept its promise and is on the cusp of becoming a key technology for mining exploration. In potential-field methods in general, numerous techniques have been developed for automatic interpretation, and 3D inversion schemes came into frequent use. These inversions will have even greater use when geologic constraints can be applied easily. In airborne electromagnetic (EM) methods, the development of time-domain helicopter EM systems changed the industry. In parallel, improvements in EM modeling and interpretation occurred; in particular, the strengths and weaknesses of the various algorithms became better understood. Simpler imaging schemes came into standard use, whereas layered inversion seldom is used in the mining industry today. Improvements in ground EM methods were associated with the development of SQUID technology and distributed-acquisition systems; the latter also impacted ground induced-polarization (IP) methods. Developments in borehole geophysics for mining and exploration were numerous. Borehole logging to measure physical properties received significant interest. Perhaps one reason for that interest was the desire to develop links between geophysical and geologic results, which also is a topic of great importance to mining geologists and geophysicists.

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Section: Case Histories For Mine-environment Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metalliferous mining geophysics — State of the art after a decade in the new millennium

2011

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“…Evangelou 1995;Kleinmann et al 1981;Singer and Stumm 1970). The site-specific reactions are largely dictated by internal structure and the physical and chemical properties of the mine wastes (Ramalho et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrical and Seismic Tomography Used to Image the Structure of a Tailings Pond at the Abandoned Kettara Mine, Morocco

Lghoul

Teixidó²,

Peña³

et al. 2012

Mine Water Environ

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International audienceThe Kettara site (Morocco) is an abandoned pyrrhotite ore mine in a semi-arid environment. The site contains more than 3 million tons of mine waste that were deposited on the surface without concern for environmental consequences. Tailings were stockpiled in a pond, in a dyke, and in piles over an area of approximately 16 ha and have generated acid mine drainage (AMD) for more than 29 years. Geophysical methods have been used at the Kettara mine site to determine the nature of the geological substrate of the tailings pond, the internal structure of the mine wastes, and to investigate the pollution zones associated with sulphide waste dumps. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and seismic refraction data were acquired, processed, and interpreted; the results from ERT and seismic refraction were complementary. A topographical survey of the tailings disposal area was also undertaken to estimate the volume of wastes and quantify the AMD process. Two-dimensional inverse models were used to investigate the geophysical data and indicated alteration zones at depth. It was determined that the material could be classified into three categories: tailings, with low resistivity (5-15 Omega m) and low velocity (500-1,800 m/s); altered, black shales, with intermediate resistivity (20-60 Omega m) and velocity (2,000-3,500 m/s), and; materials with high resistivity and velocity (> 60 Omega m and > 4,000 m/s, respectively), including unaltered shales associated with quartzite seams. The low-resistivity zone generates AMD, which migrates downward through fractures and micro-fractures. The substrate is composed of broken and altered shale, which facilitates AMD infiltration

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“…Milligan copper gold porphyry deposit, Canada (Oldenburg et al, 1997), in shallow coal mine workings (Johnson, 2003), in the East Pennine Coalfield, UK (Chambers et al, 2007), in uranium mining sides (Legault et al, 2008;Ramalho et al, 2009) and in Landusky gold mine, Montana, USA (Rucker et al, 2009). Doyle (1990) also extensively discussed the gold exploration by electrical and VLF methods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-dimensional resistivity imaging in the Kestelek boron area by VLF and DC resistivity methods

Bayrak

Şenel

2012

Journal of Applied Geophysics

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Using geophysical methods to characterize an abandoned uranium mining site, Portugal

Cited by 25 publications

References 12 publications

Metalliferous mining geophysics — State of the art after a decade in the new millennium

Metalliferous mining geophysics — State of the art after a decade in the new millennium

Electrical and Seismic Tomography Used to Image the Structure of a Tailings Pond at the Abandoned Kettara Mine, Morocco

Two-dimensional resistivity imaging in the Kestelek boron area by VLF and DC resistivity methods

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