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Water pollution in the impact areas of the two abandoned metal ore mines in Slovenia and PortugalDoroteja Gošar, 2015, undergraduate thesis
Abstract: Mining in both Mežica zinc and lead mine and in Freixeda gold mine caused negative environmental impacts. The main objective of the thesis was to study negative impacts on water quality through time. During the process various literature sources were studied, field work and chemical analyses were performed and interpretation of results with different statistical methods was done.
In Mežica mine the quality of surface water has improved through time and nowadays the Meža River is of good quality. The biggest change was shown in the case of Helena rivulet, where Pb, Zn and Cd concentration between 2002 and 2015 lowered below limit values. Preventive measures and treatment of waste deposits had positive impact on water quality and based on standards for drinking water, groundwater from mine could be a source of drinking water. In Freixeda stream concentration of heavy metals lowered through time and in 2015 values of Zn, Pb, Cd and Cu in Freixeda stream before confluence with the Tua River were below the limit value. An exception is the increased value of As, which was caused by acid mine drainage (AMD) inflow from the mine, but also by the discharge from confined aquifer to Freixeda stream. Treatment of AMD was efficient for a while but due to lack of maintenance it is no longer effective.
Keywords: Abandoned mines, heavy metals, pollution, Mežica mine, Freixeda mine
Published in RUNG: 05.10.2015; Views: 7029; Downloads: 327
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