Investigation of the effect of binding material and Thiobacillus thiooxidans on the heavy metals mobilization in the mine tailings


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Aktas D., Akıncı G., Güven E. D.

PAMUKKALE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES-PAMUKKALE UNIVERSITESI MUHENDISLIK BILIMLERI DERGISI, vol.25, no.3, pp.268-279, 2019 (ESCI) identifier

Abstract

The total concentrations of arsenic (As), boron (B), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), thallium (Tl) and zinc (Zn) in the mine tailings of an abandoned Pb-Zn mining site and an open boron mining site are investigated in this study. In addition, heavy metals' distributions in chemical binding forms and their mobilities with the presence of binding materials and acidic bacteria are examined. The amounts of sulfur and carbonate in the waste and binding materials are also determined according to the static method, in order to define the acid neutralization potential of the wastes. For mobilization studies, mine tailings are mixed with with leonardite and domestic solid waste compost in different ratios (10/0, 9.5/0.5, 9/1; 8/2). Independent from the binding materials, the mobilization effect of sulfur oxidizing Thiobacillus thiooxidans bacteria has been tested and evaluated. Experiments are conducted using a standard leach test EPA 1310B Extraction Procedure, and correlations between the parameters studied were statistically evaluated using the findings of SPSS 24. Although there is no statistically significant reduction in metals' mobilization with the use of leonardite and waste compost, it has been concluded that different binding agents may have different impacts due to the metal type. As a result, it is understood that metals mobility increases in the presence of Thiobacillus thiooxidans in the environment, and that the heavy metal mobility is directly proportional to the exchangeable and acid soluble fraction, followed by the reducible fraction and the amount of metals bound to the organic fractions.