ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS OF THE BACTERIAL LEACHING OF ORE MINERALS FROM WASTE AT THE PEZINOK DEPOSIT (MALÉ KARPATY MTS., SLOVAKIA) - Carpathian Journal of Earth And Environmental Sciences

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Peter ANDRÁŠ^1,2, Marcel ADAM³, Martin CHOVAN⁴,Andrea ŠLESÁROVÁ⁵
¹ Geological Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Severná 5, 974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, andras@savbb.sk
² Department of Ecology and Environmental Education, Matej Bel University, Tajovského 40, 974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
³ Department of geology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina G, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia, adam@fns.uniba.sk
⁴ Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolin G, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia, chovan@fns.uniba.sk
⁵ Institute of Geotechnics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 45, 043 53 Košice, Slovakia, aslesar@saske.sk

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS OF THE BACTERIAL LEACHING OF ORE MINERALS FROM WASTE AT THE PEZINOK DEPOSIT (MALÉ KARPATY MTS., SLOVAKIA)

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Abstract: The article reports the chemical characteristic of acid mining drainage waters as well as the results of leaching experiments conducted with and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans at the same conditions in solution. The experiments were realized realized using tailing impoundment sediments and ore minerals from the Sb-(Au-) base metal deposit Pezinok (Malé Karpaty Mts., Western Carpathians, Slovakia). The research study shows the oxidation sequence and the leaching progression on surface of the following ore minerals: löllingite, arsenopyrite, stibnite, native Sb, gudmundite, berthierite, pyrite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. The differences between chemical and biological-chemical leaching activity of various ore minerals on the polished sections surface is discussed. The extent and the kinetics of the biological-chemical leaching of ore minerals is significantly higher than the chemical leaching of ore minerals without bacteria.

Keyword: acid mine drainage water, ore minerals, biological-chemical oxidation, chemical oxidation, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans, etching-patterns.