Dynamic Study on the Release and Migration of Heavy Metals during the Oxidation of Lead-Zinc Tailings

Abstract

The dumping of lead-zinc tailings causes serious environmental pollution around the mine. In order to study the safe dumping of tailings and the removal of a certain amount of heavy metals during the dumping process, the release and migration of Zn, Cd, Pb, Cu and As under different oxidant concentrations and different liquid to solid ratios were investigated in lead-zinc tailings of Lutang, Dachang, Guangxi. The results show that the oxidizing environment can effectively promote the release and migration of the elements. The higher the oxidant concentration, the more the elements can be migrated out. The optimum liquid-solid ratio for release and migration varies among the elements, with the most suitable solid to liquid ratio being 1∶10 for Zn and 1∶6 for Cd, 1∶6 for Pb, 1∶5 for Cu and 1∶6 for As.

Keywords

• lead-zinc mine
• heavy metals
• release migration
• tailings