Arsenic fractionation in mine spoils 10 years after aided phytostabilization

Jurate Kumpiene (1) , Jeffrey P. Fitts (2) , Michel Mench (3)

1 Division of Waste Science and Technology
2 Environmental Sciences Department
3 BioGeCo - Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés

Aided phytostabilization using a combination of compost, zerovalent iron grit and coal fly ash (CZA) amendments and revegetation effectively promoted the biological recovery of mining spoils generated at a gold mine in Portugal. Selective dissolution of spoil samples in combination with solid phase characterization using microbeam X-ray absorption near edge structure (μXANES) spectroscopy and microbeam X-ray fluorescence (μXRF) mapping were used to assess As associations in spoils ten years after CZA treatment. The results show that As preferentially associates with poorly crystalline Fe-oxyhydroxides as opposed to crystalline Fe-(oxyhydr)oxide phases. The crystalline Fe(III)-phases dominated in the treated spoil and exceeded those of the untreated spoil three-fold, but only 2.6–6.8% of total As was associated with this fraction. Correlation maps of As:Fe reveal that As in the CZA-treated spoils is primarily contained in surface coatings as precipitates and sorbates. Arsenic binding with poorly crystalline Fe-oxyhydroxides did not inhibit As uptake by plants.

Mots clés: selective dissolution; μXRF mapping

Mots clés: iron; XANES; déchet minier

Domaines: Environnement et Société

Jurate Kumpiene, Jeffrey P. Fitts, Michel Mench. Arsenic fractionation in mine spoils 10 years after aided phytostabilization. Environmental Pollution, 2012, 166, pp.82-88. ⟨10.1016/j.envpol.2012.02.016⟩. ⟨hal-02649639⟩