Journal
CHEMOSPHERE
Volume 193, Issue -, Pages 1071-1079Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.133
Keywords
Acid mine drainage; Copper; Isotopes; Watershed
Categories
Funding
- french national programme EC2CO Biohefect/Ecodyn//Dril/MicrobiEen (INSU/CNRS, France)
- Paul Sabatier University (France)
- Department of Mining, Mechanical, Energetic and Construction Engineering of the University of Huelva (Spain)
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In the South-West Europe (Iberian Pyrite Belt), acid mine drainage (AMD) processes are especially problematic because they affect the environmental quality of watersheds, restricting the use of surface water. Recent studies have shown that Cu isotopes are fractionated during the oxidative dissolution of primary sulfide minerals and could be used to trace metal cycling. However the chemistry of Cu in such environment is complex because Cu is redistributed within numerous secondary minerals and strongly dependent on the hydroclimatic conditions that control key parameters (pH, redox conditions). Finally, it remains difficult to compare the various field studies and deliver some strong general tendencies because of these changing conditions. For these reasons, concerted studies on Cu isotopes fractionation in waters impacted by AMD may help to reveal the sources and transport pathways of this important pollutant. To address this issue, we used a representative scenario of strong contamination by AMD in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (SW Spain), the Cobica River. The aim of our study is to measure the Cu isotopes signature in the waters (river, mine lake, water draining waste) of the small Cobica River system (Huelva, Spain), sampled during a short period (8 h) to avoid any change in the hydro-climatic conditions. This provided an instantaneous image of the isotopic Cu signature in a small mining systems and helped us to constrain both the processes affecting Cu isotopes and their use a potential tracer of metals in contaminated environments. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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