Geochemical investigation of Sasa tailings dam material and its influence on the Lake Kalimanci surficial sediments (Republic of Macedonia) – preliminary study

Vrhovnik, Petra and Rogan Šmuc, Nastja and Dolenec, Tadej and Tasev, Goran and Dolenec, Matej (2011) Geochemical investigation of Sasa tailings dam material and its influence on the Lake Kalimanci surficial sediments (Republic of Macedonia) – preliminary study. Geologija, 52 (2). pp. 183-190.

Text 183-190_vrhovnik_et_al[1].pdf Download (987kB)

Abstract

This research is aimed at investigating the mineralogical characteristics of the tailings material and heavy
metal contents of the tailings material deposited close to the Sasa Pb-Zn Mine in the Osogovo Mountains (eastern
Macedonia) and on its possible impact on Lake Kalimanci. The mineral composition of Sasa Mine tailings material
is dominated by quartz, pyrite, galena, sphalerite, magnetite and others. Geochemical analysis was performed in
a certified commercial laboratory for the following elements: Mo, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, As, Cd, Sb, Bi, Ag, Al, Fe, Mn, S.
Analysis revealed very high concentrations of toxic metals in the tailing material – with average values �mg kg-1�:
Mo 2.9, Cu 279, Pb 3975, Zn 5320, Ni 30, As 69, Cd 84, Sb 4.2, Bi 9.4 and Ag 4.1. The multi-element contamination
of Sasa Mine tailings material was assigned a pollution index greater of 15, indicating that the tailings material
from Sasa Mine contains very high amounts of toxic metals and represents a high environmental risk for surrounding
ecosystems. For this reason the influence of discharged tailings dam material into Lake Kalimanci which lies
approximately 12 km lower than Sasa Mine, was also established. Calculated pollution index values for Lake Kalimanci
sediments vary from 21 to 65 and for Sasa mine surficial tailings dam material from 15 to 60.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Natural sciences > Earth and related environmental sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Natural and Technical Sciences
Depositing User:	Goran Tasev
Date Deposited:	22 Nov 2012 08:16
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2012 08:16
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/1618

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