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The behavior of arsenic and antimony at Pezinok mining site, southwestern part of the Slovak Republic

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Abstract

Arsenic and antimony contamination is found at the Pezinok mining site in the southwest of the Slovak Republic. Investigation of this site included sampling and analysis of water, mineralogical analyses, sequential extraction, in addition to flow and geochemical modeling. The highest dissolved arsenic concentrations correspond to mine tailings (up to 90,000 μg/L) and the arsenic is present predominately as As(V). The primary source of the arsenic is the dissolution of arsenopyrite. Concentration of antimony reaches 7,500 μg/L and its primary source is the dissolution of stibnite. Pore water in mine tailings is well-buffered by the dissolution of carbonates (pH values between 6.6 and 7.0) and arsenopyrite grains are surrounded by reaction rims composed of ferric iron minerals. Based on sequential extraction results, most solid phase arsenic is in the reducible fraction (i.e. ferric oxyhydroxides), sulfidic fraction, and residual fraction. Distribution of antimony in the solid phase is similar, but contents are lower. The principal attenuation mechanism for As(V) is adsorption to ferric oxide and hydroxides, but the adsorption seems to be limited by the competition with Sb(V) produced by the oxidation of stibnite for adsorption sites. Water in mine tailings is at equilibrium with gypsum and calcite, but far from equilibrium with any arsenic and antimony minerals. The concentrations of arsenic and antimony in the surrounding aquifer are much lower, with maximum values of 215 and 426 μg/L, respectively. Arsenic and antimony are transported by ground water flow towards the Blatina Creek, but their loading from ground water to the creek is much lower compared with the input from the mine adits. In the Blatina Creek, arsenic and antimony are attenuated by dilution and by adsorption on ferric iron minerals in stream sediments with resulting respective concentrations of 93 and 45 μg/L at the site boundary south of mine tailing ponds.

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Acknowledgments

The research was based on the results of the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-0268-06 “Contamination generated by Sb mining in Slovakia: Evaluation and strategies for remediation”. We thank an anonymous reviewer whose comments helped to improve the manuscript. We also thank Angus Calderhead for language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydrogeology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska dolina, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Renata Flakova, Zlatica Zenisova, David Krcmar, Ivana Ondrejkova & Miriam Fendekova

  2. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, 17. listopadu 12, 771 46, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Ondra Sracek

  3. OPV s.r.o. (Protection of Groundwater Ltd.), Bĕlohorská 31, 169 00, Praha 6, Czech Republic

    Ondra Sracek

  4. Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska dolina, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Martin Chovan & Bronislava Lalinská

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  1. Renata Flakova
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Correspondence to Renata Flakova.

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Flakova, R., Zenisova, Z., Sracek, O. et al. The behavior of arsenic and antimony at Pezinok mining site, southwestern part of the Slovak Republic. Environ Earth Sci 66, 1043–1057 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1310-7

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