The Behavior of Heavy Metals in Mine Water and the Proposal of Countermeasure Technique at "Firefly village", Misato, Yoshinogawa City, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

The behavior of dissolved heavy metals were investigated on the acid mine water in a vicinity of an abandoned copper mine. The heavy metal concentrations in the river water downstream of the mine were in the range of background level around the investigation area. The river sediments, however, contained high concentration of heavy metals. This phenomenon was understood as the heavy metals in the mine water are precipitated by the mixing with high pH river water and are included into the river sediments. The thermodynamic simulation showed that a simple neutralization tank is possibly capable to perform 77-100 % removal of heavy metal.