Environmental assessment of the arsenic-rich, rodalquilar gold-(copper-lead-zinc) mining district, se Spain: soils and wild plants species.

Abstract

The Rodalquilar mineral deposits (SE Spain) were formed in Miocene time in relation to caldera volcanic episodes and dome emplacement phenomena. Two types of ore deposits are recognized: (1) the El Cinto epithermal, Au?As high sulphidation vein and breccia type; and (2) peripheral low sulphidation epithermal Pb?Zn?Cu?(Au) veins. The first metallurgical plants for gold extraction were set up in the 1920s and used amalgamation. Cyanide leaching began in the 1930s and the operations lasted until the mid 1960s. The latter left a huge pile of *900,000?1,250,000 m3 of abandoned As-rich tailings adjacent to the town of Rodalquilar. A frustrated initiative to reactivate the El Cinto mines took place in the late 1980s and left a heap leaching pile of *120,000 m3. Adverse mineralogical and structural conditions favoured metal and metalloid dispersion from the ore bodies into soils and sediments, whereas mining and metallurgical operations considerably aggravated contamination. We present geochemical data for soils, tailings and wild plant species. Compared to world and local baselines, both the tailings and soils of Rodalquilar are highly enriched in As (mean concentrations of 950 and 180 lg g-1, respectively). Regarding plants, only the concentrations of As, Bi and Sb in Asparagus horridus, Launaea arborescens, Salsola genistoides, and Stipa tenacissima are above the local baselines. Bioaccumulation factors in these species are generally lower in the tailings, which may be related to an exclusion strategy for metal tolerance. The statistical analysis of geochemical data from soils and plants allows recognition of two well-differentiated clusters of elements (As?Bi?Sb?Se?Sn?Te and Cd?Cu?Hg?Pb?Zn), which ultimately reflect the strong chemical influence of both El Cinto and peripheral deposits mineral assemblages.