Strategies for classification and reuse of iron and manganese mining wastes.

GIROLAMO, BELARDI; GODEAS, ALICIA MARGARITA; ROSAMARIA, SALVATORI; EMANUELA, TEMPESTA; GIOVANNA, CAPPAI; STEFANO, MILIA; SCOTTI, ADALGISA; STEFANO, UBALDINI; GUGLIETTA, DANIELA; BARBARA, CASENTINI; DANIELE, PASSERI; SILVANI, VANESA ANALÍA; FRANCESCA, TRAPASSO

Chisinau

Conferencia; International Conference ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES OF MODERN CHEMISTRY; 2019

Institute of Chemistry Chemical Society of the Republic of Moldova

Mining and mineral-processing wastes represent one of the world?s largest chronic waste concerns. A number of environmental problems are associated with the disposal of these wastes, including ecological losses, downstream contamination and pronounced landscape transformation. In recent years, difficulties to access raw materials (RMs) have led to progressive resource depletion, increase in metals price and environmental pressures. The recovery of critical raw materials (CRMs) from low-grade ore, steel works by-products and industrial wastes has become an important issue and a global challenge for present and future economy. Due to the continuous need for mining activities to collect RMs to sustain our economy, the recycling and reuse of mining and mineral-processing wastes should be pursued through appropriate innovative management strategies aimed at minimizing the environmental impacts and preserving human health. Furthermore, it is generally difficult to assign a universal method to reuse all kinds of mining and mineral-processing wastes; hence, the choice of possible recycling, reprocessing and reuse strategies should be case-specific. Aim of this paper is to evaluate integrated multidisciplinary strategy for the characterization and analysis of mining waste, its possible recycling and re-use and strategies for CRMs recovery. Proposed strategies have been applied to wastes produced in the Fe-Mn mine in Bichakundi (near Joda West, Odisha-India). In the first phase, in situ sampling campaigns have been carried out; mining wastes have been thoroughly characterized by X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and spectral signatures analysis and the acquired mineralogical, chemical and spectral information have been used to create a map of mining waste deposits by means of the new multispectral satellite Sentinel-2A classification. The use of Fe-Mn rich wastes in arsenic removal and phosphorus recovery from water will be discussed. Furthermore, the potential metals uptake from contaminated soils and their possible recovery from incinerated/lyophilized biomass by hydrometallurgical methods is evaluated also according to preliminary phyto-myco-remediation tests carried out using Helianthus annuus (i.e., sunflower) and Rhizophagus intraradices.