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Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb

Mining activities are acknowledged to introduce contaminants into localised environments and cause wider spread diffuse pollution. The concentration, distribution and fate of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) were studied at the former metalliferous Louisa Mine at Glendinning, Scotland. Soils and surfa...

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Autores principales: Mbadugha, Lenka, Cowper, Duncan, Dossanov, Sapar, Paton, Graeme I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7641951/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32638254
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00652-w
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author Mbadugha, Lenka
Cowper, Duncan
Dossanov, Sapar
Paton, Graeme I.
author_facet Mbadugha, Lenka
Cowper, Duncan
Dossanov, Sapar
Paton, Graeme I.
author_sort Mbadugha, Lenka
collection PubMed
description Mining activities are acknowledged to introduce contaminants into localised environments and cause wider spread diffuse pollution. The concentration, distribution and fate of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) were studied at the former metalliferous Louisa Mine at Glendinning, Scotland. Soils and surface water were sampled and subsequently analysed to map the distribution of contamination and identify pollution sources. The maximum concentrations of As and Sb of 15,490 and 1504.2 mg kg(−1), respectively, were determined in soils associated with the ore processing area and spoil heaps. The fractions of dissolved As and Sb in soils were < 1 and < 5% of total soil content, respectively, confirming findings of previous studies that As and Sb are relatively immobile. Yet, the concentrations of As and Sb released by soils exceeded regulatory limits. Concentrations of As and Sb in surface water in the immediate vicinity of the mine were impacted by a gully discharge, but rapidly diluted. While the concentrations affected by the run-off waters did not exceed EU environmental standards for freshwater, the concentrations of both, As and Sb, sharply increased above the said environmental standards approximately 100 m downstream of the mine site. The unaltered As-to-Sb ratio in water samples suggests a geogenic source. While there is a justifiable concern about the soil pollution caused by the historic mining in the area, the Glenshanna Burn is affected more by indigenous geochemical processes than the derelict mine.
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spelling pubmed-76419512020-11-10 Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb Mbadugha, Lenka Cowper, Duncan Dossanov, Sapar Paton, Graeme I. Environ Geochem Health Original Paper Mining activities are acknowledged to introduce contaminants into localised environments and cause wider spread diffuse pollution. The concentration, distribution and fate of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) were studied at the former metalliferous Louisa Mine at Glendinning, Scotland. Soils and surface water were sampled and subsequently analysed to map the distribution of contamination and identify pollution sources. The maximum concentrations of As and Sb of 15,490 and 1504.2 mg kg(−1), respectively, were determined in soils associated with the ore processing area and spoil heaps. The fractions of dissolved As and Sb in soils were < 1 and < 5% of total soil content, respectively, confirming findings of previous studies that As and Sb are relatively immobile. Yet, the concentrations of As and Sb released by soils exceeded regulatory limits. Concentrations of As and Sb in surface water in the immediate vicinity of the mine were impacted by a gully discharge, but rapidly diluted. While the concentrations affected by the run-off waters did not exceed EU environmental standards for freshwater, the concentrations of both, As and Sb, sharply increased above the said environmental standards approximately 100 m downstream of the mine site. The unaltered As-to-Sb ratio in water samples suggests a geogenic source. While there is a justifiable concern about the soil pollution caused by the historic mining in the area, the Glenshanna Burn is affected more by indigenous geochemical processes than the derelict mine. Springer Netherlands 2020-07-07 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7641951/ /pubmed/32638254 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00652-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Mbadugha, Lenka
Cowper, Duncan
Dossanov, Sapar
Paton, Graeme I.
Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb
title Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb
title_full Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb
title_fullStr Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb
title_full_unstemmed Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb
title_short Geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former Sb mine: environmental impacts of As and Sb
title_sort geogenic and anthropogenic interactions at a former sb mine: environmental impacts of as and sb
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7641951/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32638254
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00652-w
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