hrvatski

Characterization of the mine water

Mine waters have the potential to negatively affect the quality of surrounding surface and ground water and aquatic ecosystems. In this study, in the samples of mine waters from the open pit (OP) coal mine "Drage" and a bauxite mine "Vinjani" (B&H), the concentrations of metals and organic carbon (dissolved, particulate and surfactant), as well as the sulfur (total and reduced), were measured. At the location of the coal mine, the elevated concentrations of a series of metals (Cd, Pb, In, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) have been found, and the concentration of Mn (84.3 to 55.8 g/L) and Ni (33.1 to 30.7 g/L) were higher than the limit value (LV), according to the Ordinance on sanitary safety of drinking water (NN 46/07). In the same samples, the measured concentrations of uranium up to 33.7μg/L were higher than the LV (30 mg/L) according to the World Health Organisation. Thus, the enrichment of the natural water by numerous coal-derived potentially toxic metals can negatively affect aquatic organisms. The pH values of water from OP "Drage" were close to neutral (6.5 to 6.96), and from OP "Vinjani" were between 7.77 and 7.84. These results suggest that the mobility of metals is not significant. Based on the values of the dissolved organic carbon and reduced sulfur the redox potential of the investigated water system was estimated.

Metals ; Organic carbon ; Sulfur

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