Environmental Impact Variability of Copper Tailing Dumps in Fushe Arrez (Northern Albania): The Role of Pyrite Separation during Flotation

Giovanni Grieco, Agim Sinojmeri, Micol Bussolesi, Giuseppe Cocomazzi and Alessandro Cavallo
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Giovanni Grieco: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
Agim Sinojmeri: Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geology and Mining, Polytechnic University of Tirana, 1010 Tirana, Albania
Micol Bussolesi: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences—DISAT, University of Milan-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
Giuseppe Cocomazzi: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
Alessandro Cavallo: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences—DISAT, University of Milan-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Acid mine drainage and potentially toxic elements release are a major source of pollution in sulfide-rich mining sites. Pyrite is the most impacting mineral due to its high acidification potential when it reacts with water under oxidizing conditions. At the Fushe Arrez dressing plant in Northern Albania, a volcanic massive sulfide copper mining district, pyrite was in past separated, with a double flotation process, to produce a pyrite concentrate and relatively-pyrite-poor tailings. In the last twenty years single flotation has replaced the double flotation process and pyrite has been deposited in pyrite-rich tailings stacked separately from the old ones. The study of the solid tailing materials and natural waters flowing through the dumping area, together with leaching tests show that waters interacting with single flotation tailings are slightly more acidic and much higher in total metal contents than those interacting with double flotation tailings. Also, the metal distribution is different, with the former being higher in sulfide-hosted metals and the latter higher in gangue-hosted metals. It is thus suggested that separation of pyrite can play an important role in the sustainable mining of pyrite-rich ores, either for dumping high hazardous pyrite concentrate separately or for marketing it as a by-product. An implementation of studies for the industrial uses of pyrite is pivotal in this last case.

Keywords: pyrite; Albania; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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