Temporal Observations of the Geochemistry and Mineralogy of a Sulfide-rich Mine-tailings Impoundment, Heath Steele Mines, New Brunswick

Exploration & Mining Geology, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1992

D.W. BLOWES, Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, J.L. JAMBOR Mineral Sciences Laboratory, CANMET, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, B.C. APPLEYARD Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, E.J. REARDON and J.A. CHERRY Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Since the 1957 initiation of deposition of mill tailings at the Heath Steele mine, New Brunswick, periodic detailed studies of the tailings geochemistry and mineralogy have been conducted, thereby providing a unique opportunity to examine the geochemical evolution of a sulfide-rich mine-tailings impoundment. When deposited, the tailings contained about 85 wt sulfide minerals, 1 wt to 3 wt carbonate minerals, and 12 wt to 14 wt aluminosilicate minerals. Mineralogi-cal examination of samples of the tailings from deep in the impoundment indicates that little oxidation occurred prior to tailings deposition. The mill process-water deposited with the tailings was neutral to slightly basic and contained low concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and As. Sampling of the tailings five years after deposition indicated that sulfide-oxidation reactions, occurring near the tailings surface, had decreased the tailings-water pH and increased the concentrations of Fe, SO42~, Cu, Zn and Pb (up to 10 000 mg/L, 25 000 mg/L, 2.5 mg/L, 200 mg/L, and 4.5 mg/L, respectively). In 1975, ten years after decommissioning, the tailings could be divided into three zones: an upper oxidation zone in which sulfide oxidation is actively occurring, a hardpan layer, 15 cm to 20 cm thick, composed of tailings cemented by secondary Fe minerals, and an underlying reduction zone in which the tailings are relatively unoxidized (Boorman and Watson, 1976). Chemical analyses indicated the presence of low-pH waters containing very high concentrations of SO42-, Fe, and other metals (up to 63 600 mg/L SO42 , 28 600 mg/L Fe, 10 mg/L Pb, 600 mg/L Cu and 4000 mg/L Zn), suggesting that there was a period of intense sulfide oxidation between five and ten years after tailings deposition. More recent sampling, conducted some 20 years after the end of tailings deposition, indicates that relatively little change has occurred in the last ten years, thereby suggesting that the hardpan layer has provided an impediment to the downward movement of dissolved constituents. Analyses of the tailings solids show increased accumulations of many metals at or near the depth of the hardpan layer. Evaluations of the long-term evolution of the tailings can be enhanced by comparison of descriptions of the tailings with descriptions of the gossan that overlay the massive-sulfide orebody prior to mining. At Heath Steele, this comparison suggests that many of the mechanisms controlling the distribution of metals in the tailings will probably persist over geologic time.