Among the solid wastes, tailings are one of the highest worrisome, particularly when they have low pH and high concentrations of heavy metals (Shu et al. 2001).
Large volumes of mine tailings (solid minerals suspended in chemical-rich liquids) are generated worldwide as by-products of ore beneficiation.
Geochemical analyses yielded a strong inverse correlation between the Fe/As molar ratio in the tailings solids and the corresponding concentration of dissolved As, which is attributed to the adsorption of As to secondary 2-line ferrihydrite present in the tailings.
All these dewatering processes are designed to recirculate the maximum amount of water to the plant and offer alternatives for the tailings solids disposal to the older solution of pumping to tailings pond, or dam.
Based on the pore water profiles and the geochemistry of the tailings solids, a relative mobility scale of Fe=Mn=Ni=Co>Cd Zn>Cr=Pb>Cu can be determined.
Thus, the feasibility of using industrial solid waste-iron ore tailings as aggregates in the development of highly ductile and green ECC was established.
The volume of solid waste generated, including tailings from mineral processing activities, is one of the main pollution concerns in the mining industry.
Gangue and tailings are both solid wastes produced by mining processing.
With the exception of LC1-M1, algalgal mat sample with 1.0 wt% S, all tailings and biogenic solid samples contained less than 0.5 wt% S. The remaining elements in the ordination (Cd, Sb, Ni, Hg, and Cu) are considered chalcophilic elements, but only Cd is strongly positively correlated with S by the PCA (Figure 2, bottom).
Another PCA was performed on the chemical data of ore, mill tailings, and biogenic solids listed in Table 2.
