|
|||||
|
|
Source, attenuation and potential mobility of arsenic at New Britannia Mine, Snow Lake, Manitoba |
|
| Authors: | Stephanie Simpson Barbara L Sherriff Jamie Van GulckElena Khozhina Kathleen LondryNikolay Sidenko |
| Institution: | a Department of Geological Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2 b Lorax Environmental Services Ltd., 2289 Burrard St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 3H9 c Arktis Solutions Inc., 117 Loutitt St., Yellowknife, NT, Canada X1A 3M2 d Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence, Site 310, 13111 Meridian Street, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6S 1G9 e Stantec Consulting Ltd., 603-386 Broadway Ave., Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3C 3R6 |
| Abstract: | This study was to investigate the source, mobility and attenuation of As at the New Britannia Mine, Snow Lake, Manitoba. One major source of As contamination was determined to be an arsenopyrite residue stockpile (ARS) containing refractory Au in a waste rock impoundment. It appears that As is still moving through glacial clay at the base of the ARS into a confined aquifer even though the pile was capped in the year 2000. Arsenic is also being mobilized from a deposit of tailings, which formed following spills by previous owners, Nor Acme. Arsenic from the tailings is being mobilized by oxidation of arsenopyrite and reduction of arsenate to the more mobile arsenite by arsenate-reducing bacteria. This contamination is affecting a shallow unconfined aquifer and surface water flowing from the tailings through wetlands towards Snow Lake. Arsenic is being attenuated by adsorption to hydrated ferric oxides (HFO) in the tailings, wetland soils and aquatic plants. Although As in surface water, soils and plants along the flow path from the mine to Snow Lake are above Canadian drinking water guidelines, efficient natural attenuation by HFO in soils and plants of the wetlands have limited the concentration in Snow Lake to below drinking water standards. |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ | |