논문 상세보기
pp.149-155
Environmental problems caused by certain geologic conditions include pollution of soil by heavy metal, acidization of soils, acid mine drainage, ground-water pollution, and natural radioactivity, as well as geological hazards such as landslide and subsidence. The acid mine drainage contains large amount of heavy metals and, therefore, cause serious pollution onto the nearby drainage systems and soils. In spite of this prospective environmental danger, few studies have been done on the acid mine drainage derived from non-metallic ore deposits such as pyrophyllite(Napseok) deposits. The sulfide-bearing pyrophyllite ores, alteration zones, and mine tailings of pyrophyllite deposits produce acid mine drainage by the oxidation of weathering. Compared to the fresh host rocks, the ores and altered rocks of pyrophyllite deposits produce acidic solution which contain higher amount of heavy metals because of their lower buffering capacity to acid solution.
The pHs of mine water and nearby stream water of pyrophyllite deposits are 2.1∼3.7, which are strongly acidic and much lower than that (6.2∼7.2) of upstream water and than that (6.8∼7.6) of the stream water derived from the non-mineralized area. This study reveals that this acid mine drainage can affect the downstream area which is 8km far from the pyrophyllite deposits, even though the drainage is diluted with abundant non-contaminated river water. This suggests that not only acid mine drainage but also the sulfide-bearing sediments originated from the pyrophyllite deposits move downstream and form acidic water through continuous oxidation reaction.
The heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Mn and Fe are enriched in the mine water of low pH, and their contents decrease as the pH of mine water increases because of the influx of fresh stream water. Soils of the pyrophyllite deposits are characterized by high contents of heavy metals. The stream sediments containing the yellowish brown precipitates formed by neutralization of acid mine drainage occur in all parts of the stream derived from the pyrophyllite deposits, and the sediments also contain high amounts of heavy metals. In summary, the acid mine drainage of the pyrophyllite deposits is located in the upstream part of Hoidong water reservoir in Pusan contains large amounts of heavy metals and flows into the Hoidong water reservoir without any purification process. To protect the water of Hoidong reservoir, the acid mine drainage should be treated with a proper purification process.
