Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study

Management of mill tailings is an important part of mining operations that aims at preventing environmental dispersion of contaminants of concern. To this end, geochemical models and reactive transport modeling provide a quantitative assessment of the mobility of the main contaminants. In arid regio...

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Autores principales:	Nicolas Seigneur, Laurent De Windt, Adrien Déjeant, Vincent Lagneau, Michaël Descostes
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	uranium mill tailings evaporitic systems reactive transport modeling HYTEC coupled processes geochemistry Mineralogy QE351-399.2
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ec3a28efe0e34aca8077434d774fcdd3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ec3a28efe0e34aca8077434d774fcdd32021-11-25T18:26:15ZLong-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study10.3390/min111112012075-163Xhttps://doaj.org/article/ec3a28efe0e34aca8077434d774fcdd32021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/11/1201https://doaj.org/toc/2075-163XManagement of mill tailings is an important part of mining operations that aims at preventing environmental dispersion of contaminants of concern. To this end, geochemical models and reactive transport modeling provide a quantitative assessment of the mobility of the main contaminants. In arid regions with limited rainfall and intense evaporation, solutes transport may significantly differ from the usual gravity-driven vertical flow. In the uranium tailings of the Cominak mine (Niger), these evaporative processes resulted in the crystallization of gypsum, and to a lesser extent jarosite, and in the formation of surface levels of sulfated gypcrete, locally enriched in uranium. We present a fully coupled reactive transport modeling approach using HYTEC, encompassing evaporation, to quantitatively reproduce the complex sequence of observed coupled hydrogeochemical processes. The sulfated gypcrete formation, porosity evolution and solid uranium content were successfully reproduced at the surface and paleosurfaces of the tailing deposit. Simulations confirm that high solubility uranyl-sulfate phase may form at the atmospheric boundary where evaporation takes place, which would then be transformed into uranyl-phosphate phases after being watered or buried under fresh tailings. As these phases usually exhibit a lower solubility, this transition is beneficial for mine operators and tailings management.Nicolas SeigneurLaurent De WindtAdrien DéjeantVincent LagneauMichaël DescostesMDPI AGarticleuranium mill tailingsevaporitic systemsreactive transport modelingHYTECcoupled processesgeochemistryMineralogyQE351-399.2ENMinerals, Vol 11, Iss 1201, p 1201 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	uranium mill tailings evaporitic systems reactive transport modeling HYTEC coupled processes geochemistry Mineralogy QE351-399.2
spellingShingle	uranium mill tailings evaporitic systems reactive transport modeling HYTEC coupled processes geochemistry Mineralogy QE351-399.2 Nicolas Seigneur Laurent De Windt Adrien Déjeant Vincent Lagneau Michaël Descostes Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study
description	Management of mill tailings is an important part of mining operations that aims at preventing environmental dispersion of contaminants of concern. To this end, geochemical models and reactive transport modeling provide a quantitative assessment of the mobility of the main contaminants. In arid regions with limited rainfall and intense evaporation, solutes transport may significantly differ from the usual gravity-driven vertical flow. In the uranium tailings of the Cominak mine (Niger), these evaporative processes resulted in the crystallization of gypsum, and to a lesser extent jarosite, and in the formation of surface levels of sulfated gypcrete, locally enriched in uranium. We present a fully coupled reactive transport modeling approach using HYTEC, encompassing evaporation, to quantitatively reproduce the complex sequence of observed coupled hydrogeochemical processes. The sulfated gypcrete formation, porosity evolution and solid uranium content were successfully reproduced at the surface and paleosurfaces of the tailing deposit. Simulations confirm that high solubility uranyl-sulfate phase may form at the atmospheric boundary where evaporation takes place, which would then be transformed into uranyl-phosphate phases after being watered or buried under fresh tailings. As these phases usually exhibit a lower solubility, this transition is beneficial for mine operators and tailings management.
format	article
author	Nicolas Seigneur Laurent De Windt Adrien Déjeant Vincent Lagneau Michaël Descostes
author_facet	Nicolas Seigneur Laurent De Windt Adrien Déjeant Vincent Lagneau Michaël Descostes
author_sort	Nicolas Seigneur
title	Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study
title_short	Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study
title_full	Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study
title_fullStr	Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study
title_full_unstemmed	Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study
title_sort	long-term evolution of uranium mobility within sulfated mill tailings in arid regions: a reactive transport study
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/ec3a28efe0e34aca8077434d774fcdd3
work_keys_str_mv	AT nicolasseigneur longtermevolutionofuraniummobilitywithinsulfatedmilltailingsinaridregionsareactivetransportstudy AT laurentdewindt longtermevolutionofuraniummobilitywithinsulfatedmilltailingsinaridregionsareactivetransportstudy AT adriendejeant longtermevolutionofuraniummobilitywithinsulfatedmilltailingsinaridregionsareactivetransportstudy AT vincentlagneau longtermevolutionofuraniummobilitywithinsulfatedmilltailingsinaridregionsareactivetransportstudy AT michaeldescostes longtermevolutionofuraniummobilitywithinsulfatedmilltailingsinaridregionsareactivetransportstudy
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Long-Term Evolution of Uranium Mobility within Sulfated Mill Tailings in Arid Regions: A Reactive Transport Study

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