Phytoremediation, a less costly prospect for tailings rehabilitation

Gold mine waste is considered as the major source of toxic metals in the environment however these toxic metals can be removed from the mine waste, soil and water by a process called phytoremediation which involves the use of plants to remove and immobilize toxic metals. A mineralogical characterization was conducted at Klein Letaba tailings storage facility (TSF) to quantify the presence of metals. Previous studies revealed an abundance of metals such as Pb, Cr, Ni and As. However, the extent of remediating metals from the TFS has not been adequately investigated in the Giyani Greenstone Belt (GGB). The TSF mainly comprises high metal concentrations of Pb, Ni, As and Cr. Plants and tailings were seasonally collected on the TFS for chemical and mineralogical characterization. XRF and ICP-OES analysis revealed the metal concentrations and distribution. The focus of the study was to investigate the potential of metal extraction from native plant species growing on the mine TSF which could not be extracted by the mine using physical-chemical techniques.