Potential release and bioaccessibility of metal/loids from mine wastes deposited in historical abandoned sulfide mines

This study deals with the potential release of metal/loids from sulfide mine wastes upon weathering and the health risks associated with their accidental ingestion. To address this, a complete chemical and mineralogical characterization of a variety of sulfide mine wastes was performed alongside a determination of metal/loid bioaccessibility through leaching tests simulating human digestive and lung fluids. The mine wastes consisted predominantly of Fe (35–55% of Fe2O3) and exhibited high concentrations of trace metalloids such as As (382–4310 mg/kg), Pb (205–15,974 mg/kg), Cu (78–1083 mg/kg), Zn (274–1863 mg/kg), or Sb (520–1816 mg/ kg). Most wastes with high concentrations of soluble compounds are considered hazardous according to the European regulations due to the exceedance of threshold values for As, Pb, Cr, Cu, Sb, sulfates, and Zn determined by standardized tests. In general terms, the absorption of waste-hosted metals through both digestive and respiratory routes was low compared to the total metal contents of the wastes, with values below 8% of the total concentration in wastes for most metal/loids including Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Tl, or U. However, some metals exhibited a significantly higher absorption potential, especially through the respiratory route, reaching values of up to 17% for Cr and 75% for Pb, highlighting the strong bioaccessibility of Pb in certain sulfide wastes. Despite the high metal/loid concentrations observed in the studied wastes, a health risk assessment indicated that some noncarcinogenic effects could be observed in children only following the accidental digestion of Pb.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the research project TRAMPA (MINECO; PID2020-119196RB-C21). C.R C´anovas thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the Postdoctoral Fellowship granted under application reference RYC2019-027949-I. BCL, AAB and TGB were supported by projects PG2018-096608-B-C21 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and innovation (MINECO) and P20-00366 (Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Business and Universities, Regional Government of Andalusia, Spain). We would also like to thank to the Editor Dr. Hefa Cheng and five anonymous reviewers for the support and comments that notably improved the quality of the original paper. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva / CBUA