Portal de Cartagena
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The new doctor from the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), Ana Vanessa Caparrós Ríos, has studied in her doctoral thesis the structural and geochemical threats facing mining deposits in the Region of Murcia.
The research provides a methodology to simulate the behavior of tailings ponds and dams before phenomena such as torrential rains or seismic events that may lead to the sliding of the residues after liquefaction, with the consequent risks of contamination in nearby areas.
The characterization of the deposit stability has been performed in dams that suffered static liquefaction and sliding (El Descargador, Peña del Águila) or minor liquefaction processes (La Peraleja), but their conclusions serve for many other places in the Sierra Minera de Cartagena-La Unión and Mazarrón in which, due to the metallic mining activity, numerous dams and tailings ponds of lead and zinc exist.
"These deposits may pose a potential risk both from the point of view of structural stability and its geochemical composition, rich in heavy metals and metalloids," says Ángel Faz Cano, who has led the thesis with Roberto Lorenzo Rodríguez Pacheco and Luis Alberto Alcolea Rubio.
The results of the thesis revealed that an increase of pH and salinity would favor the stability of the tailings.
"We have verified that the degree of saturation has a significant influence on the stability of the prey.
In these structures, water saturation remains high throughout the year, even in semi-arid areas, due to the density, granulometry and hydrogeological properties of materials that control capillary height, "says the new doctor.
The thesis also contains a comparison of the flow behavior of materials collected in original strata with those previously liquefied forming sand dams.
In addition, the study includes the influence of other physico-chemical parameters of post-flotation residues on their viscoelastic properties as mineral suspensions.
Source: UPCT
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