Hydrogeochemistry at mining districts

The Southern Urals exemplifies hydrogeochemical environments at mining districts. Information obtained by studying the geochemistry of nonferrous-metal industrial wastes (both mine and dump drainage) is important not only because these wastes are potential sources of base metals but also in the context of geoecological problems. The Southern Urals is one of Russia’s principal producers of Cu and Zn concentrates for metallurgical processing: the region produces 12–15% Cu and 49% Zn concentrates in the country and 35% Cu and 69% Zn concentrates in the Urals. The Yubileinoe, Podol’skoe, Sibai, Uchaly, Novy Uchaly, and Gai deposits are the largest in the Urals. The ores of these deposits contain certain components (Se, Te, Cd, Co, Ga, Ge, In, Be, etc.) that are environmental contaminants. The volume of mine and dump drainage in the Southern Urals amounts to 9 million m³/year, and its mineralization varies from 3.0 to 30–40 g/L, occasionally as high as 365 g/L, with a sulfate, chloride–sulfate calcic–magnesian, magnesian–sodic, and magnesian–calcic composition of the waters. The minor and trace elements of the regional waste waters whose concentrations exceed the regional background values are Cu, Zn (one to four orders of magnitude), As, Cd (one to three orders of magnitude), Li and Be (one to two orders of magnitude). All waste waters transfer various contaminants into environmental subsystems and most actively modify the composition of the groundwaters. At the same time, dump drainage is a potentially important secondary source of valuable mineral components.     

The nature and relationships of hydrated and adsorbed cations in the stratisphere of the Volga-Ural sedimentary basin

The features of the kinetics and hydrochemical effects of the exchange-absorption processes in the stratisphere of the Volga-Ural basin are considered. The dependence of these processes on the vertical geochemical zonality and their varied character over the basin depth are shown. The exchange-absorption nature on fresh sodium-hydrocarbonate and saline sodium-sulfate waters in the Upper-Permian sediments of the zone of hypergenesis is proved by the experiments and by physicochemical modeling in the water-terrigenous rock system. The exchange-absorption processes lose their hydrogeochemical significance and play no significant role in the formation of strong brines of the chlorine-calcium type in the zones of cata- and metagenesis under the submersion of Paleozoic and Late Proterozoic rocks to depths over 1000–3000 m.     

Assemblage of Fe–Mg–Al–Ti–Zn Oxides in Granulites of the Bunger Hills,East Antarctica: Evidence of Ultrahigh-Temperature Metamorphism

Geology of Ore Deposits - The composition and interrelations of oxides (minerals of the spinel supergroup, corundum, ilmenite, rutile) and silicates (garnet, sillimanite, orthopyroxene, cordierite)...     

Hydrochemical and hydrobioloigical regime of the Pavlovskoe Reservoir

The results of hydrological, ecological-hydrochemical, and hydrobiological studies, aimed at the protection and rational use of water resources of the Pavlovskoe Reservoir are considered. The results of experimental studies of the effect of submerged wood on water chemistry and the assessment of the ecological state of the reservoir based on phytoplankton data are given.     

Kinetics of Exchange-Adsorption Processes in the Formation of Mineral Sulfate Sodium Waters

The ion-exchange properties of terrigenous rocks have been studied, and physicochemical modeling has been used to study the formation of sulfate sodium water in the Volga–Ural Basin of the Russian Plate and the Kartalinskii Basin of the Caucasian hydrogeological folded area. Hydrogeochemical experiments have shown that the exchange-adsorption interaction between gypsum water and adsorbed Na⁺ of terrigenous rocks in the water–rock system involves many stages, resulting in the accumulation in solution of considerable amounts of Na₂SO₄ (up to 9–17 g/dm³).