Decontamination of Soil Containing Residual Mercury from Mining Operations

9800643费尔南多这是一个奖项，旨在为最大限度地减少土壤净化过程对环境的影响的研究提供支持，这些土壤在从美国和墨西哥开采的矿石中提取金银时使用汞进行净化。这项工作涉及与墨西哥瓜达拉哈拉自治大学的Tetsuya Ogura博士合作，研究从墨西哥萨卡特卡斯受污染的地点获得的土壤。目前在那里使用的过程包括用硫代硫酸钙的水溶液处理被这些金属污染的土壤，硫代硫酸钙是通过将二氧化硫通过石灰和元素硫的水悬浮液产生的。产生的金属污染物溶液与沉淀含有金银元素汞的金属接触，通过加热汞合金使汞蒸发，可以从汞齐中提取元素汞。过程控制是重要的，以避免其对空气、水和土壤的潜在污染影响。预计该项目的结果将提供关于如何设计和实施正在研究的过程的知识，以获得其好处并将其潜在的负面环境影响降至最低。研究还将确定该工艺相对于目前现有的从土壤中去除汞的替代技术的优缺点。该项目通过与墨西哥国家技术委员会(CONACyT)的合作计划得到部分支持。*

9800643 Fernando This is an award to provide support for research on minimizing the environmental impact of a process for decontamination of soil that had been contaminated by use of mercury in extracting gold and silver from ores mined in the United States and Mexico. The work involves collaboration with Dr. Tetsuya Ogura of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico on soils obtained from contaminated sites in Zacatecas, Mexico. The process currently in use there involves treatment of soil contaminated by these metals with an aqueous solution of calcium thiosulfate produced by passing sulfur dioxide through an aqueous suspension of lime and elemental sulfur. The resultant solution of metal contaminants is contacted with metals that precipitate elemental mercury containing amalgamated gold and silver which can be extracted from the amalgam by heating it to vaporize the mercury. Process control is important to avoid its potential pollutional impact on air, water and soil. Results of this project are expected to provide knowledge as to how the process being studied can be designed and conducted to obtain its benefits and minimize its potential negative environmental impact. Research will also identify the advantages and disadvantages of the process over currently available alternative technologies for removing mercury from soil. This project is being partially supported through a program of collaboration with the Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) of Mexico.***