Hydrochemistry, mineralogy and chemical fractionation of mine and processing wastes associated with porphyry copper mines: A case study from the Sarcheshmeh mine, SE Iran

The Sarcheshmeh is one of the largest Oligo-Miocene porphyry Cu deposits in the world. Comparative hydrochemical, mineralogical and chemical fractionation associated with mining efflorescence salts and processing wastes of this mine are discussed. Hydrochemical results showed that rock waste dumps, reject wastes and old impoundments of tailings are the main sources of acid mine drainage waters (AMD) that contain potentially toxic metals such as Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn as well as Al. Episodic fluxes of highly contaminated acidic waters were produced in a tailings dam over a short period of time. Secondary soluble minerals provide important controls on the quality of AMD produced, especially in old, dry tailings impoundments. Secondary sulfate minerals such as gypsum, magnesiocopiapite, hydronium jarosite, kornelite and coquimbite were found in rock waste drainages and in old weathered reject wastes. Highly soluble secondary minerals such as gypsum, eriochalcite, and bonattite are also observed in an evaporative layer on old tailings impoundments. Chemical fractionation patterns of potentially toxic elements showed that the geochemical behavior of metals is primarily controlled by the mineralogical composition of waste samples. Elements such as Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn are readily released into the water soluble fraction from efflorescence salts associated with rock waste drainages, as well as from the evaporative layer of old tailings. Potentially toxic elements, such as As, Mo and Pb, are principally adsorbed or co-precipitated with amorphous and crystalline Fe oxides, but they may also be associated with oxidizing, primary sulfides and residual fractions. Following the development of the dammed tailings pond, the secondary minerals were dissolved, producing acidic waters contaminated by Al (154 mg L⁻¹), Cu (150 mg L⁻¹), Cd (0.31 m gL⁻¹), Co (2.13 mg L⁻¹), Mn (73.7 mg L⁻¹), Ni (1.74 mg L⁻¹), Zn (20.3 mg L⁻¹) and Cl (1690 mg L⁻¹). Therefore, the potential use of recycled water from the Sarcheshmenh dammed tailings pond is diminished by the presence of corrosive ions like Cl⁻ in highly acidic fluids that promote corrosion of pipes and pumps in the water recycling system.     

Distribution of heavy metals in the clastic fine-grained sediments of Gavkhuni playa lake (Southeast of Isfahan,Iran)

The sedimentary basin of Gavkhuni playa lake includes two sedimentary environments of delta and playa lake. These environments consist of mud, sand and salt flats. There are potentials for concentration of heavy metals in the fine-grained sediments (silt and clay) of the playa due to existence of Pb/Zn ore deposits, industrial and agricultural regions in the water catchment of Zayandehrud River terminating to this area. In order to study the concentration of heavy metals and the controlling factors on their distribution in the fine-grained sediments, 13 samples were taken from the muddy facies and concentration of the heavy metals were determined. The results showed that the heavy metal concentrations range in the sediments (in ppm) are Mn (395.5–1,040), Sr (100.4–725.76), Pb (14.66–91.06), Zn (23.59–80.9), Ni (37–73.66), Cu (13.83–29.83), Co (5.73–13.78), Ag (3.03–4.76) and Cd (2.3–5.5) in their order of abundances. The concentration of Ag is noticeable in the sediments relative to the average concentration of this element in mud sediments. The amounts of Pb and Zn are relatively high in all the samples in comparison with the other elements. The concentration of Ni is relatively high in the oxidized samples. The distribution of Pb is directly related to organic matter content of the sediments. The concentrations of Zn, Sr, Cu, Co and Cd in the samples of the playa are lower than those in the delta. The amount of illite is another factor influencing Zn and Pb concentrations. Sr is more concentrated in the sediments with the high content of calcium carbonate. The distribution pattern of Cu, Co, Pb and Mn resembles to that of the clay content of the sediments. The clay content shows positive correlations with Co, Cu and Mn concentrations and negative correlation with Ag. The Sr and Ag concentrations are positively correlated with the amount of CaCO₃. The amounts of Co, Cu, Ni and Mn show negative correlations with the calcium carbonate content. Pb and Co are noticeably correlated with Mn.     

Application of artificial intelligence techniques for predicting the flyrock distance caused by blasting operation

Flyrock arising from blasting operations is one of the crucial and complex problems in mining industry and its prediction plays an important role in the minimization of related hazards. In past years, various empirical methods were developed for the prediction of flyrock distance using statistical analysis techniques, which have very low predictive capacity. Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are now being used as alternate statistical techniques. In this paper, two predictive models were developed by using AI techniques to predict flyrock distance in Sungun copper mine of Iran. One of the models employed artificial neural network (ANN), and another, fuzzy logic. The results showed that both models were useful and efficient whereas the fuzzy model exhibited high performance than ANN model for predicting flyrock distance. The performance of the models showed that the AI is a good tool for minimizing the uncertainties in the blasting operations.     

Impact assessment of land cover changes on the runoff changes on the extreme flood events in the Kelantan River basin

In the current years, changing the land cover/land use had serious hydrological impacts affecting the flood events in the Kelantan River basin. The flood events at the east coast of the peninsular Malaysia got highly affected in the recent decades due to several factors like urbanisation, rapid changes in the utilisation of land and lack of meteorological (i.e. change in climate) and developmental monitoring and planning. The Kelantan River basin has been highly influenced due to a rapid change in land use during 1984 to 2013, which occurred in the form of transformation of agricultural area and deforestation (logging activities). In order to evaluate the influence of the modifications in land cover on the flood events, two hydrological regional models of rainfall-induced runoff event, the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC)-Hydrologic Modeling System (HMS) model and improved transient rainfall infiltration and grid-based regional model (Improved TRIGRS), were employed in this study. The responses of land cover changes on the peak flow and runoff volume were investigated using 10 days of hourly rainfall events from 20 December to the end of December 2014 at the study area. The usage of two hydrological models defined that the changes in land use/land cover caused momentous changes in hydrological response towards water flow. The outcomes also revealed that the increase of severe water flow at the study area is a function of urbanisation and deforestation, particularly in the conversion of the forest area to the less canopy coverage, for example, oil palm, mixed agriculture and rubber. The monsoon season floods and runoff escalate in the cleared land or low-density vegetation area, while the normal flow gets the contribution from interflow generated from secondary jungle and forested areas.     

Spatial correlation for horizontal and vertical components of acceleration from northern Iran seismic events

The evaluation of seismic risk of spatially distributed systems requires the spatial correlation model for ground motion intensity measures. This study investigates the spatial correlation of four earthquakes recorded in northern Iran. The intra-event spatial correlation for both horizontal and vertical components of spectral acceleration at eight periods in the range of 0.0–3.0 s is estimated using geostatistical tools. An exponential form is chosen to fit experimental semivariograms, and the correlation ranges of spectral accelerations as a function of period are derived. The results show similar trend of correlation ranges for both components. It should be mentioned that the ranges for the vertical component, in general, are higher than those observed for the horizontal one. For both components, the correlation ranges as a function of period are divided into three segments. The first and the third one are increasing while the second one is decreasing with increasing period.     

Identification of hidden faults using determining velocity structure profile by spatial autocorrelation method in the west of Mashhad plain (Northeast of Iran)

Characterizing the subsurface structure is an important parameter for the improvement of seismic hazard assessment.Due to the tectonic complexity of the earth,s...     

Random vibration of nonlinear structures with stiffness and strength deterioration by modified tail equivalent linearization method

In this research the tail equivalent linearization method(TELM) has been extended to study structures with degrading materials. The responses of such structures to excitations are non-stationary, even if the excitations are stationary. Non-stationary behavior of the system cannot be considered by conventional TELM. Applying the conventional TELM, the only distinction in the design point excitation for two stationary excitations with different durations is in the addition of a zero value part at the beginning of the design point of the longer excitation. This means that the failure probability is the same for the non-stationary systems under excitations with different durations. Therefore, this solution cannot be correct. In this study, in using TELM for systems with degrading materials, hysteretic energy is replaced by average hysteretic energy, calculated by averaging the obtained hysteretic energy of the structure subjected to a few random sample load realization. In this way, the degradation parameters under design point coincide with those under sample load realizations. Since the average of the hysteretic energy is converges very fast, the modified TELM only requires about tens to hundreds solutions of the response in addition to the ordinary calculations of conventional TELM.     

Generating non-stationary random fields of auto-correlated,normally distributed CPT profile by matrix decomposition method

This paper emphasises the true realisation of Cone Penetration Test (CPT) profiles considering non-stationary nature of the data. Formulation of stationary random field theory has been modified and adapted to non-stationary state in order to take into account the mean and variance variability for soil properties. Multi-variance correlation matrix along with the Cholesky decomposition technique was employed to produce realisations of non-homogenous and non-stationary random fields of CPT profiles. A piecewise and segmental data realisation according to the lithology and site class specifications acquired directly from CPT data is adopted in this study so as to render an accurate data simulation. For validation of proposed method 8 CPT test profiles collected from Urmia Lake site have been introduced and simulated by the stationary and non-stationary algorithms. The mean correlation coefficient between the actual CPT data profiles and related realisations along with some other important statistical parameters and their coefficients of variation strongly demonstrate that non-stationary random field generation technique gives quite better accuracy, by comparison to the conventional stationary random field generation scheme.