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MONITORING OF SULFIDE-BEARING WASTE NEUTRALIZATION BY ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY TOMOGRAPHY IN LABORATORY CONDITIONS

I. I. Fadeeva, A. V. Edelev, N. V. Yurkevich, S. S. Volynkin

A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

The use of electrical exploration methods allows real-time monitoring of processes occurring in manmade systems, however, recognition of processes by changing the electrical conductivity of complex object is a non-trivial task, and to solve it, one should start with a simplified physical modeling of the acidic matter waste interaction with neutral host rock in laboratory conditions. Physical simulation of the interaction ofacid-producing mining waste (tailings) with sand saturated with water and monitoring of this interaction using a dipole-dipole axial array and time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography method is carried out. The processes occurring during such interaction are revealed and reactions of dissolution of waste substance, acidification of the sand pore water and alkalization of acid solution due to longer dissolution processes of carbonates presenting in the sand and their partial hydrolysis are described; the decreasing rate of the waste substance mineralization in the volume of sand (0.145 g/kg/day) is estimated. The practical significance of the workconsists in the possibility of determining the factors influencing the rate of chemical reactions, which in the future will allow the use of the electrical resistivity tomography method to control the processes of waste neutralization with lime solutions or heap leaching with underspoil waters.

Keywords: mining waste, tailings, physical modeling, acidification and neutralization processes, timelapse electrical resistivity tomography.

DOI 10.20403/2078-0575-2024-1-72-81

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