A Study of Physicochemical and Mineralogical Properties of Heavy Metal Contaminated-Soil Particles from the Kangwon and Donghae Mines

Soil samples collected at the Kangwon and Donghae mines were investigated for the characterization of heavy metals using physicochemical and mineralogical properties. Arsenic (As) concentrations of soil samples sieved above 18 mesh and under 325 mesh at the Kangwon mine are 250.5 to 445.7 ppm, respectively. For soil samples sieved above 18 mesh at the Donghae mine, the concentrations of As, Pb, and Zn are 70.4, 1,055, and 781.9, while 117.7 ppm for As, 2,295 ppm for Pb, and 1,346 ppm for Zn are shown for the samples sieved under 325 mesh. XRD and SEM data indicated that the samples from the Kangwon mine included quartz, mica, albite, chlorite, magnetite, and amphibole while those from the Donghae mine contained quartz, mica, kaolinite, chlorite, amphibole, and rutile. SEM-EDS showed that magnetite found in the samples at the Kangwon mine was positively correlated with arsenic concentrations whereas ilmenite in the samples from the Donghae mine contained only small amount of As. Our results suggest that physicochemical and mineralogical characterization plays an important role in optimizing recovery treatments of soils contaminated in mine development areas.