Learning from the past: Stability of arsenic in old mining residues

摘要

Removal of arsenic (As) from contaminated water and industrial effluents produces variable amounts of residues, which result in new potential sources of As contamination. The future trend is the need to deal with increased amount of As residues as a consequence of population and industrial growth. Mining and metallurgical activities are important sources of As residues. Established techniques for As removal in these industries often results in generation of large amounts of residues with low As content, thus implying in large disposal costs. More importantly, long-term stability of these residues is still not well understood or fully controlled, thus implying potential sources of contamination.