Investigating Mineral Weathering and Metal Transport through Century-Old Ore Chimney Waste Rock

It appears your Web browser is not configured to display PDF files. Download adobe Acrobat or click here to download the PDF file.

Click here to download the PDF file.

Creator: 

Hicks, Andrew

Date: 

2021

Abstract: 

This thesis investigates the long-term weathering of a 100-year-old waste-rock pile at the Ore Chimney mine. Three vertical trenches were excavated, and waste-rock material was sampled at 0.5 m depth intervals. Waste-rock material was sieved into fine (< 0.5 mm) and coarse (0.5 to 2.0 mm) grain size fractions and used to investigate solid-phase geochemical signatures and porewater geochemistry. Solid-phase geochemical investigations revealed a sulfide mineral assemblage composed of highly weathered sphalerite and galena, with frequent occurrence of relatively un-weathered pyrite and chalcopyrite. Porewater pH was near-neutral suggesting ongoing acid neutralization. Porewater Zn concentrations as high as 87.5 ppm are attributed to the prolonged weathering of sphalerite. High alkalinity levels (μ = 60.2 mg/L CaCO3) suggests that carbonate phases are potentially controlling Pb, Zn, Cd, and Cu in the porewaters. Results from this study suggest that weathering processes may continue for some time, but abundant carbonates will provide long-term buffering.

Subject: 

Geochemistry
Mineralogy
Hydrology

Language: 

English

Publisher: 

Carleton University

Thesis Degree Name: 

Master of Science: 
M.Sc.

Thesis Degree Level: 

Master's

Thesis Degree Discipline: 

Earth Sciences

Parent Collection: 

Theses and Dissertations

Items in CURVE are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. They are made available with permission from the author(s).