Acid mine drainage simulated leaching behavior of goethite and cobalt substituted goethite

Abstract:

Though most modern day mining aims to eliminate the seepage of acid mine drainage (AMD) to the local watershed, historical mines regularly receive little to no remediation, and often release acidic, metal-rich drainage and particles to the environment. Treatment of AMD often includes neutralizing pH to facilitate the precipitation of Fe-oxides and dissolved trace metals, thereby forming Trace Metal Substituted (TMS) forms of known minerals, such as goethite (α-FeOOH). The stability of TMS precipitates is not fully understood. As a result, we conducted a 20 day leach experiment using laboratory synthesized pure (Gt) and cobalt-substituted (CoGt) goethites with a dilute ultrapure HCl solution (pH = 3.61) at T = 23.3±2.5ºC. Leached solids were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy paired with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Leach solutions were sampled for pH and conductivity, and dissolved chemistry was determined with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Preliminary results indicate Gt and CoGt filtered leach solutions experienced constant pH (Gt = 3.9 ± 0.1, CoGt = 6.8 ± 0.2) and conductivity (Gt = 69 ± 6.6 μS/cm, CoGt = 81 ± 16 μS/cm) for t = 0-20 days. Micro-focused XRD results indicate that leached solids did not change in mineralogy throughout the experiment, and SEM images show minor disintegration along mineral grain edges, but little overall change in shape. Preliminary ICP-MS results show lower dissolved Fe concentrations for CoGt (1.1 ± 1.1 ppb) compared to Gt (17 ± 8.9 ppb) over time. Dissolved Co concentrations ranged from 560 – 830 ppb and increased over time. Compared to leaching of pure Gt, leaching of CoGt generated significantly higher pH, slightly higher conductivity, and significantly less dissolved Fe. During the CoGt leach, Co was preferentially leached over Fe. The differences in leaching behavior between pure and TMS goethite in the laboratory have implications for the leaching behavior of goethite in the environment, where trace metal substitution is expected to be common. These experiments suggest that trace metals coprecipitated with Fe-oxides may not be stable in the long term. Future leach experiments with TMS precipitates from the field are planned to test this.