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The environmental effects of mineral deposits on watersheds are a complex and poorly understood function of local and regional geology and hydrology, deposit type, climate, and the ecosystem of the watershed. If the deposits are developed, mining techniques, methods of ore processing and tailings disposal, and metal mobility from dumps and tailings also contribute to the environmental signature. All of these processes contribute to the widely observed phenomenon that the environmental "footprint" of a mineral deposit is much larger than the deposit itself. While the spatial extent of a mineral deposit can be determined with some certainty by exploration drilling, mining, and other methods, the spatial (and temporal) extent of the environmental effects (both natural and anthropogenic) of that deposit depend on a number of processes and properties of the system. These include the weathering behavior and weathering rates of minerals in the deposit and surrounding altered areas, the climatic and hydrologic setting, interactions between ground water and surface water, etc. Understanding these processes in the context of the spatial and temporal scales within which they occur leads to an understanding of the environmental impact of mineral deposits. This project advances the philosophical approach and protocols to characterizing the environmental behavior of mineral deposit types and host lithologic terranes. Ultimately, this project will provide fundamental building blocks for the development of environmental assessment protocols at local and regional scales, which are an expressed need of Federal land-use planning agencies. This project also addresses issues of natural versus anthropogenic geochemical effects attributable to mineral deposits, whether mined or not.
This Project (1) studies the environmental behavior of selected mineral deposit types in various climatic settings, (2) investigates metal mobility and spatial scale of the environmental effects of mineral deposits, (3) conducts topical studies on metal transport, fate, and biological uptake, (4) and studies the influence of bedrock composition on geochemistry of natural waters in headwater regions. The scope of the geoenvironmental models will include the deposit-scale to the more regional watershed-scale and will incorporate critical variables such as climate, hydrologic setting, mining practices, and tailings disposal methods. The process-oriented approach of these studies should facilitate the development of a predictive capability for the environmental behavior of mineral deposits, which would be the focus of future projects.
| Richard Wanty | Box 25046 MS 973 Denver, CO 80225 |
(303) 236-1819 rwanty@usgs.gov |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Sanzolone | Box 25046 MS 973 Denver, CO 80225 |
(303) 236-1856 rsanzolo@usgs.gov |
U.S.
Department of the Interior || U.S. Geological
Survey
