Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy
Supply of resources, a growing population, and environmental pollution are some of the main challenges facing the contemporary world. The rapid development of mining activities has produced huge amounts of waste. This waste, found in abandoned mine sites, provides the potential opportunity of extrac...
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doaj-8a5f53a975414f2fb717f9c36f5383af2020-11-25T03:10:15ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502020-03-01126247110.3390/su12062471su12062471Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, ItalyNeha Mehta0Giovanna Antonella Dino1Iride Passarella2Franco Ajmone-Marsan3Piergiorgio Rossetti4Domenico Antonio De Luca5Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, 10125 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, 10125 Torino, ItalyHorizon s.r.l., 10095 Grugliasco (TO), ItalyDepartment of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences, University of Turin, 10095 Grugliasco (TO), ItalyDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, 10125 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, 10125 Torino, ItalySupply of resources, a growing population, and environmental pollution are some of the main challenges facing the contemporary world. The rapid development of mining activities has produced huge amounts of waste. This waste, found in abandoned mine sites, provides the potential opportunity of extracting raw material. The current study, therefore, focuses on testing the validation of a shared methodology to recover extractive waste from abandoned mines, and applies this methodology to a case study in Gorno, northwest Italy. The methods focused on: (1) analyzing the impact of tailings and fine fraction of waste rock (<2 mm) on plants (Cress - <i>Lepidium Sativum</i>) to assess usability of both as soil additive, and (2) recovering raw materials from tailings and coarse fraction (>2 mm) of waste rock, by means of dressing methods like wet shaking table and froth flotation. The results indicated that the fine fraction of waste rock and tailings did not have detrimental effects on seed germination; however, there was marked decrease in plant growth. As for the recovery of raw materials, the coarse waste rock samples, crushed to <0.5 mm, produced a recovery of Cd, Ga, and Zn—as much as 66%, 56%, and 64%, respectively—using the wet shaking table. The same samples when crushed to 0.063−0.16 mm and used for froth flotation produced a recovery of Cd, Ga, and Zn of up to 61%, 72%, and 47%, respectively. The flotation experiment on tailings showed a recovery of Cd, Ga and Zn at pH 7 of 33%, 6% and 29% respectively. The present investigation highlights the methodologies used for extracting raw materials from extractive waste.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2471circular economyresource supplyraw materialstriassic western southern alps (italy)abandoned minesextractive waste |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Neha Mehta Giovanna Antonella Dino Iride Passarella Franco Ajmone-Marsan Piergiorgio Rossetti Domenico Antonio De Luca |
spellingShingle |
Neha Mehta Giovanna Antonella Dino Iride Passarella Franco Ajmone-Marsan Piergiorgio Rossetti Domenico Antonio De Luca Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy Sustainability circular economy resource supply raw materials triassic western southern alps (italy) abandoned mines extractive waste |
author_facet |
Neha Mehta Giovanna Antonella Dino Iride Passarella Franco Ajmone-Marsan Piergiorgio Rossetti Domenico Antonio De Luca |
author_sort |
Neha Mehta |
title |
Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy |
title_short |
Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy |
title_full |
Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy |
title_fullStr |
Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessment of the Possible Reuse of Extractive Waste Coming from Abandoned Mine Sites: Case Study in Gorno, Italy |
title_sort |
assessment of the possible reuse of extractive waste coming from abandoned mine sites: case study in gorno, italy |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2020-03-01 |
description |
Supply of resources, a growing population, and environmental pollution are some of the main challenges facing the contemporary world. The rapid development of mining activities has produced huge amounts of waste. This waste, found in abandoned mine sites, provides the potential opportunity of extracting raw material. The current study, therefore, focuses on testing the validation of a shared methodology to recover extractive waste from abandoned mines, and applies this methodology to a case study in Gorno, northwest Italy. The methods focused on: (1) analyzing the impact of tailings and fine fraction of waste rock (<2 mm) on plants (Cress - <i>Lepidium Sativum</i>) to assess usability of both as soil additive, and (2) recovering raw materials from tailings and coarse fraction (>2 mm) of waste rock, by means of dressing methods like wet shaking table and froth flotation. The results indicated that the fine fraction of waste rock and tailings did not have detrimental effects on seed germination; however, there was marked decrease in plant growth. As for the recovery of raw materials, the coarse waste rock samples, crushed to <0.5 mm, produced a recovery of Cd, Ga, and Zn—as much as 66%, 56%, and 64%, respectively—using the wet shaking table. The same samples when crushed to 0.063−0.16 mm and used for froth flotation produced a recovery of Cd, Ga, and Zn of up to 61%, 72%, and 47%, respectively. The flotation experiment on tailings showed a recovery of Cd, Ga and Zn at pH 7 of 33%, 6% and 29% respectively. The present investigation highlights the methodologies used for extracting raw materials from extractive waste. |
topic |
circular economy resource supply raw materials triassic western southern alps (italy) abandoned mines extractive waste |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2471 |
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