Ranking methodology and geochemical character of different waste materials of an epithermal mineralization from the Recsk Mining Area, Hungary

<p>Mining activities inevitably generate contaminants in high quantities that can pose a risk at soil, water, biota and humans. This article describes a systematic method to understand the geochemical properties of various mine waste heaps and to investigate the waste material of a flotation mud and a waste rock heap coming from a high-sulphidation epithermal mineralization of the Recsk Mining Area, Hungary, and an application of a risk evaluation technique is presented.</p> <p>Field sampling took place in the Recsk Mining Area on the H2 tailings heap and on the H7 waste rock heap where a total of 48 samples were collected. The geochemical properties of the waste material were assessed to shed light on the behavior of the potential toxic elements. The element concentration of the samples was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and ion chromatography. In addition, the mineral phases present were detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Ranking of potential toxic mining waste was calculated using two indicators: the index of contamination (IC) and the Hazard Average Quotient (HA) which was used to calculate the Toxicity Factor (TF). The mobility of each element was estimated using a simple formula followed by univariate and bivariate data analysis methods.</p> <p>Results show that the potentially toxic elements are present in varying concentrations in the two studied wase heaps, even though they are originating from the same mineralization. They also behave differently on the studied waste heaps in terms of mineral composition. The calculated IC values were very high, exceeding the limits, and TF values were low for mining waste according to the legislative concentration pollution limits. A unique approach is needed for each type of waste heap in order to facilitate a successful remediation or secondary raw material extraction.</p> <p>Keywords: mining waste; geochemistry; contamination, index of contamination, Hazard Average Quotient</p>