title: Leaching characteristics of vanadium in mine tailings and soils near a vanadium titanomagnetite mining site.
abstract: A series of column leaching experiments were performed to understand the leaching behaviour and the potential environmental risk of vanadium in a Panzhihua soil and vanadium titanomagnetite mine tailings. Results from sequential extraction experiments indicated that the mobility of vanadium in both the soil and the mine tailings was low, with <1% of the total vanadium readily mobilised. Column experiments revealed that only <0.1% of vanadium in the soil and mine tailing was leachable. The vanadium concentrations in the soil leachates did not vary considerably, but decreased with the leachate volume in the mine tailing leachates. This suggests that there was a smaller pool of leachable vanadium in the mine tailings compared to that in the soil. Drought and rewetting increased the vanadium concentrations in the soil and mine tailing leachates from 20μgL(-1) to 50-90μgL(-1), indicating the potential for high vanadium release following periods of drought. Experiments with soil columns overlain with 4, 8 and 20% volume mine tailings/volume soil exhibited very similar vanadium leaching behaviour. These results suggest that the transport of vanadium to the subsurface is controlled primarily by the leaching processes occurring in soils.
authors.affiliation: College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jinyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Queens College City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11367, USA.
authors.forename: Ashaki A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Rouff
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Evert J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Elzinga
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: jen-how.huang@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Jen-How
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D007220:Industrial Waste; D058085:Iron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D008906:Mining; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D014639:Vanadium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007220:Industrial Waste; D058085:Iron Compounds; D014639:Vanadium; D014025:Titanium
keywords: Leaching; Mine tailing; Soil; Vanadium; Vanadium titanomagnetite